II 



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hristian Salvation 
its DoGtrine and Experience 




Class 
Book. 








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Copyri^htN°_ 



CSPXRIGHT DEPOSfT. 




ROBERT ALEXANDER WEBB, D.D., LL.D. 



Christian Salvation 

Its Doctrine and Experience 



By 

Robert Alexander Webb, D.D., LL.D. 
M 

Late Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology in the 

Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Kentucky 

Louisville, Kentucky 



Published by 

Presbyterian Committee of Publication 
Richmond, Virginia 

1921 



3~n '5\ 



Copyright, 1921 

presbyterian committee of publication 

richmond, va. 



OCT 25 m\ 

©CU627424 






15 

Va 



Dedicated 

to the 

Students of Dr. Webb 



Robert Alexander Webb, D.D., LL.D. 



A Sketch 

By Rev. Charles R. Hemphill. 

Robert Alexander Webb, the son of Robert C. Webb and 
Elizabeth Dortch Webb, was born on the 20th day of September, 
1856, at Oxford, Mississippi, and fell asleep in Louisville, Ky., 
May 23, 1919. He spent the first fifteen years of his life on the 
plantation of his father, and enjoyed the sports and out-door life 
of a boy on a Southern plantation. He always cherished the 
happiest memories of his boyhood days. When he was fifteen 
years of age the family removed to Nashville, Tennessee, and at 
seventeen he became a student in the Webb School at Culleoka, 
Tennessee, noted for its high quality as a training school. From 
this institution he passed to the Southwestern Presbyterian Uni- 
versity at Clarksville, Tennessee, from which he was graduated 
with highest honors in 1887. At the closing exercises that year 
the Baccalaureate sermon was delivered by the Rev. John L. 
Girardeau, D. D., Professor of Theology in Columbia Seminary, 
one of the most eloquent preachers and orators our country has 
produced. The ardent spirit of the young man was so profoundly 
impressed by the preacher that he determined to pursue his theo- 
ligical studies in the Seminary at Columbia, in which he matricu- 
lated the following September. The Seminary had an able faculty 
and young Webb appreciated all of his professors and zealously 
performed every task, but it was Theology that engaged his 
deepest interest and it was Dr. Girardeau whose Christian char- 
acter most attracted him, whose eloquence most charmed him 
and whose profound thinking and inspiring instruction most ex- 
cited his intellectual powers. The older man took the younger 
into companionship with himself, and many were the hours they 
spent together in discussion of profoundest themes of theology, 



and this companionship became the more intimate when, after 
graduation, the young man became one of the household through 
marriage with Miss Sally, second daughter of Dr. Girardeau. 
Death soon dissolved this relation, but the two men were always 
father and son. It was a frequent counsel of Dr. Girardeau to 
the Seminary graduate to accept a call to a church in the country 
rather than in a town or city. His reason for this advice was 
that the young minister forms his intellectual habits in the first 
three or four years and that the country offers the best oppor- 
tunity for continuous and systematic study and for the formation 
of studious habits. Dr. Webb, acting upon this counsel, became 
the pastor of Bethel Church, in York County, South Carolina, 
one of the oldest and largest country churches in a region origin- 
ally settled by Scotch-Irish and dotted with Presbyterian 
churches. In his case Dr. Girardeau's judgment was fully vindi- 
cated. The young man gave himself with complete devotion to 
the study of great themes in theology and to the Christian Scrip- 
tures, and it was in the five years spent in this country church 
that he consolidated the results of all his previous studies and 
laid the foundation for his intellectual achievements in later days. 
From Bethel Church Dr. Webb went to Davidson College, North 
Carolina, as pastor, and a year later became pastor of Westmin- 
ster Church, Charleston, South Carolina. In 1892 he was called 
to the Chair of Theology in the Divinity School of the South- 
western Presbyterian University, which had been filled since the 
opening of the Divinity School in 1885 by the Rev. Joseph R. 
Wilson, D. D., father of President Woodrow Wilson, and from 
which Dr. Wilson had resigned. The University was favored at 
this time in adding to its faculty of older men several able young 
men, and the Divinity School sent forth a succession of graduates 
who proved themselves most effective ministers and not a few 
of whom have risen to distinction in the church. From the outset 
Dr. Webb displayed all the qualities of a great teacher, and in 
these early days, as in all after years, he left an ineffaceable mark 
on every man who passed under his hand. His students spread 
his fame as a teacher and a Christian theologian and he speedily 
attained a reputation which increased with every passing year. 
In 1908, Dr. Webb, in response to a unanimous call by the Board 
of Directors, became Professor of Apologetics and Systematic 



Theology in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Kentucky, 
at Louisville. This most important Chair had been vacant since 
the death in 1906 of the eminent theologian and teacher, Francis 
R. Beattie. Dr. Webb soon made a place for himself in the 
Seminary circle and the community, and though he lived the 
somewhat retired life of the teacher, he won many warm friends 
here as everywhere, and in and out of the churches there were 
many who admired the great scholar and the courteous Christian 
gentleman. 

It would be pleasant to enter into personal details and recol- 
lections of Dr. Webb and to speak of him as preacher and pastor 
and ecclesiastic, but the limits of this sketch forbid, and there is 
opportunity only for an effort to estimate him in the office of a 
teacher of theology in which he served for twenty-seven years. 
For this office he was fitted by natural endowments, by bent of 
mind, by an almost perfect intellectual discipline, by deep Chris- 
tian experience and by broad attainments. He commanded the 
whole field of theology and had thoroughly mastered all the his- 
torical systems of theology and the philosophies underlying or 
akin to them. He was not, however, a mere expositor of theologi- 
cal systems, but, on the ground of both Scripture and reason, a 
convinced and thorough-going adherent and advocate of the Au- 
gustinian or Calvinistic system of theology. 

He had a keenly analytic mind, and with this power of analy- 
sis was united an equal power of logic which marched with un- 
broken step from premise to conclusion. Added to these was an 
unusual capacity for profound, clear and patient thinking which 
explored every recess of a subject, and an ability to set forth the 
results of study and thought in a style simple, clear, pungent 
and often flashing out in all the colors of rhetoric. These intel- 
lectual qualities were transfused with an ardent love of truth, an 
absolute submission to the teaching of the Holy Scripture, and 
an adoring devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Dr. Webb's method of instruction was the combination of 
text-book and lecture, along with daily inquisition of the student. 
In his questions he was very skilful, and while he would some- 
times play the student as the fisherman plays the fish, it was 
always in kindest spirit. He threw his whole soul into his teach- 
ing and often the professor's chair became the preacher's pulpit 



and he bore down on the heart and conscience of the student with 
powerful appeal. His students were deeply attached to him and 
gave him the warmest affection and the most unstinted admira- 
tion. They knew him to be their friend, wise in counsel and 
sympathetic with them in their doubts and difficulties. In all 
their ministry they remained loyal to him, and through them he 
has had an incalculable influence in holding the Church steadfast 
to her faith and to her mission. 

It was the often expressed wish of Dr. Webb's students and 
many other friends that he should publish his lectures, or reduce 
them to the form of a usable text-book in theology. Had his life 
been prolonged he might have been induced to undertake this. 
The wish is met in part by the present volume. 

While at Clarksville Dr. Webb published a treatise on the 
Theology of Infant Salvation, in which he convincingly shows 
how the Calvinistic system provides, on the basis of the Scrip- 
tures, for the salvation of all persons who die in infancy. Some 
years later he delivered a course of lectures on the Smyth 
foundation at Columbia Seminary, which were repeated at Jack- 
son, Miss,, and published under the title of The Christian Hope. 
At various times articles of his appeared in the Presbyterian 
Quarterly and in the religious papers. The two volumes and 
the occasional articles alike exhibit the ability, knowledge, and 
conscientious work always characteristic of his strong and dis- 
ciplined mind. 

Dr. Webb was taken away in the maturity of his powers, and 
at a time when the Church needs his steadying influence, and his 
unsurpassed ability in training young men for the ministry. He 
lives in the characters and teachings of his hundreds of students, 
who in this and other lands are preaching the glorious Gospel of 
the blessed God. 

On October 23, 1888, Dr. Webb was married to Miss Roberta 
Chauncey Beck, of Columbia, S. C, who with their two children, 
Miss Annie Webb, of Louisville, and Robert A. Webb, Jr., M. D., 
of London, England, survives him. A great multitude through- 
out the Church share their sorrow in the loss they have suffered, 
and are grateful to God for him and for the grace by which he 
wrought so much for the Church and the world. 



Preface 



This volume is published in response to the urgent desire of 
former students and numerous friends of the late Professor 
Webb, and in accordance with affirmative action of the General 
Assembly of 1920 upon overtures from five Presbyteries "asking 
that the Executive Committee on Publication be instructed to 
take steps looking to the publication of a volume of the writings 
of the late Dr. R. A. Webb." 

Mrs. Webb kindly put Dr. Webb's lectures and other writings 
at the disposal of the Executive Committee, and at its request 
two of Dr. Webb's colleagues in the Kentucky Seminary and 
five of his old students were constituted an Advisory Committee 
to select the material for the proposed volume. 

In making the selection the Advisory Committee was con- 
trolled by the desire to secure unity of subject and complete- 
ness of treatment, and to avoid trenching on material that 
might properly make up another volume should its publication 
be found practicable. After much consideration the choice fell 
upon the lectures dealing with Soteriology, or the Doctrine of 
Salvation, which discuss a single general subject, and cover 
it more completely than was found true in the case of any 
other subject. It has not been thought proper by the Commit- 
tee to do any editing of the lectures beyond making a few 
trivial corrections and transliterating Greek words referred to by 
the author. 

The Executive Committee has been favored in having the 
cheerful and efficient aid of representative men in the Synods 
and Presbyteries, mostly students of Dr. Webb, in obtaining 
advance subscriptions to the volume. 

The book is sent forth to the Church in recognition of an 
able and loyal son and a gifted teacher of many of her most 
useful ministers, and in the conviction that by it her faith in the 
doctrines of Grace will be confirmed. 



PART I. 



Salvation as a Doctrine 



I. Introduction 13 

II. The Covenant of Grace 18 

III. Predestination 22 

IV. Election 26 

V. Reprobation 37 

VI. Jesus of Nazareth 43 

VII. The Messiah 59 

VIII. Christological Problems 74 

IX. Mediation 99 

X. Christ : The Prophet 115 

XL Christ : The Priest 126 

XII. The Atonement: Its Necessity — 

A Summary Statement 148 

XIII. The Atonement: The Theory of 

Satisfaction 150 

XIV. The Atonement : Its Extent 165 

XV. The Atonement : Disproofs of 

Universalism 192 

XVI. The Atonement : Disproofs of 

Arminian Universalism 202 

XVII. The Intercession of Christ 224 

XVIII. Christ : The King 230 

XIX. The Humiliation of Christ 242 

XX. The Exaltation of Christ 256 



CHAPTER I. 

Introduction 

Soteriology. — Theology Proper, or Theism, is the doc- 
trine of God; Anthropology is the doctrine of Man; Soteri- 
ology is the doctrine of Salvation. It is formed out of soter 
(saviour) and logos (discourse). It is that department of 
general theology which treats of the Redemption of sinful 
men. Its task is to discover and expound the biblical ordo 
salutis. 

Ordo Salutis. — But is there any ordo salutis, or plan of 
salvation? In saving sinful men may not God proceed in an 
emergent and haphazard fashion, adjusting his saving acts to 
the circumstances as they occur in human history? May not 
the facts of the Gospel be without order, incapable of being 
reduced to any programme whatsoever? If so, there can be 
no soteriology, or systematic exposition of a gospel plan of 
salvation. There are three proofs for the fact of an ordo salu- 
tis: (i) biblical, (2) logical, (3) analogical. 

(1) Biblical. — The Scriptures speak of an Economy of 
Redemption. "The dispensation of the fulness of times" 
(oikonomian tou pleromatos ton kairon) (Eph. 1:10). These 
"times" are gospel times, they have contents a pleroma, a full- 
ness of gospel items or facts, and these contents are dis- 
pensed," not in confusion and disorder, but as an "economy." 
"Economy" is derived from the Greek oikonomia which is 
compounded of oikos (house) and nomeo (to arrange). It 
therefore signifies something as orderly as a well arranged 
house. 

(2) Logical. — The Scriptures give us all the Elements 
of a Plan. These are three: (a) an object to be accomplished, 
(b) means for the accomplishment of that object, and (c) the 
application of the means to the accomplishment of that ob- 
ject. The gospel object is the salvation of sinful men, the 
means for the accomplishment of that object is the saving 



14 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

work of Christ, and the means for the application of the sav- 
ing work of Christ to the accomplishment of the object of 
saving sinful men is the work of the Holy Spirit. Where we 
have all the elements of a plan we logically have the plan 
itself. 

(3) Analogical. — All the analogies between Nature and 
Grace, (and the Redeemer frequently said the kingdom of 
heaven is like certain things in nature) support the propo- 
sition that there is a plan of salvation. The natural sciences 
delight to assert that the universe is a cosmos and that all 
the laws of nature are orderly. If God works in an orderly 
and methodical way in creation, how much more would we 
expect him to operate in a regular and unchaotic fashion in 
redemption? 

Elements. — Soteriologists collect and arrange the ele- 
ments of the plan of salvation under three heads: (1) 
Predestination, (2) Atonement, (3) Vocation. 

They get these three elements, or departments, by ob- 
serving that the Christian Scriptures represent the Triune 
God — Father, Son and Holy Ghost — as the saviour of sinful 
men. Each person in the Godhead, exercises a saving office, 
and performs a saving work, in the redemption of sinful men ; 
and the beneficiaries of divine grace owe the praises of their 
salvation, co-ordinately and co-equally, to the Father and the 
Son and the Holy Ghost. In offering up his thankful wor- 
ship and grateful praise for the salvation of his soul, no man 
is warranted in making distinctions in the Trinity and ren- 
dering more, or different, gratitude to one of these adorable 
persons as distinguished from the other members of the God- 
head. In redemption, as in creation and providence, these 
three persons are equal in power and glory, and the bless- 
ings of redemption are to be ascribed alike to each. The 
Christian is right when he sings the Long Meter Doxology. 

The economic offices of the Trinity in the salvation of 
sinful men may be shown by a homely illustration. It is the 
office of an architect to draw the design of a building — sketch 
it on paper — conceive it in mind — give to the house mental, 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 15 

ideal, decretal existence — the general outline and all the speci- 
fications and details. Then it is the office of a contractor 
to take this design — this conceptual house — from the hand 
of the architect, gather his workmen and materials, and act- 
ually erect the building according to design and specifica- 
tions — make the ideal or mental house a real or concrete 
house. Then, according to our custom, it is the business of 
the man who runs the moving car to get the family and its 
belongings and move them into the house designed by the 
architect and built by the contractor. 

In this homely figure the Father is the Architect of the 
house of redemption, the house of many mansions, in the 
language of the Saviour; the Son is the Contractor, who by 
his incarnation, life and death, actually erects this house of 
redemption, in all things according to the pattern which he 
receives from the hand of his Father, altering it neither by 
addition nor subtraction, or in any manner whatsoever; and 
the Holy Spirit runs the analogue of the moving car, using 
the gospel, the ministers, Christian workers and the Church 
as his force for collecting God's people — those for whom this 
house of redemption was designed and erected — and actually 
moving them into its possession and enjoyment — making of 
them conscious Christians. 

Leaving figures, the technical term for the saving work 
of the Father is Predestination; for the saving work of the 
Son is Atonement ; and for the saving work of the Spirit is 
Vocation. 

These terms are to have their exposition in the proper 
place. 

Outline. — Soteriologists dispute with each other about 
the proper and biblical order of these three elements or doc- 
trines in God's ordo salutis, and their arrangement of them 
gives rise to several parties or schools of interpreters of the 
Plan of Salvation. 

Sublapsarians. — These are low Calvinists. Their order 
is (1) Predestination, (2) Atonement, (3) Vocation. Their 
name indicates that they place Predestination under (sub) or 



1 6 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

below (infra) the fall (lapsus) of mankind. In their view God's 
predestination terminates upon men viewed as created and 
fallen, and out of this created and fallen mass of mankind 
he elects some to everlasting life and passes by others and leaves 
them to their sinful fate. Then as a means to this end, he 
sent his Son into the world to make an atonement for the 
sins of all the elect, and his Spirit to effectually call all of 
these into saving relations to Christ. 

Supralapsarians. — These are high or ultra Calvinists. 
They are so called because they conceive of God predestinat- 
ing some to life and passing by others — as uttering his sav- 
ing purpose — before or above (supra) the fall (lapsus) of 
all mankind. They insert creation and the fall between pre- 
destination and atonement, and so give us this logical order: 
(i) Predestination, (2) Creation, (3) the Fall, (4) Atonement, 
(5) Vocation. Interpreted, it means that God first decreed 
to save and damn; then that he might have some objects 
upon whom such a decree could terminate, he next decreed 
to create men as they were created; then that they might be 
in a salavable and damnable condition, he next decreed their 
sin and fall; and then sent his Son to make the atonement 
and his Spirit to effectually call through the gospel. Such 
an ordo salutis is abhorrent to metaphysics, to ethics, and to 
the Scriptures. It is propounded in no Calvinistic creed and 
can be charged only upon some extremists. 

Hypotheticalists. — These are sometimes called New 
Schoolmen or Hypothetical Universalists or Moderate Cal- 
vinists. They give us this order: (1) Atonement, (2) Pre- 
destination, (3) Vocation. These place the work of the Son 
first, and construe it as universal ; then the work of the 
Father, and interpret it as elective and partial in its saving re- 
sults and intentions, and then the work of the Spirit third, 
and interpret the gospel call as effectual only in the case of 
the elect. It is repugnant to the Scriptures to represent 
Christ's saving work as preceding the work of the First 
Person in the Godhead: violative of the uniform Trinitarian 
order of life and action. It is repugnant to the gospel to 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience iy 

represent the Father as passing by any persons for whom 
Christ has made atonement. Christ and his Father are al- 
ways one — there can be no discord between them. 

Arminians. — These propose the following ordo salutis: 
(i) Atonement, (2) Vocation, (3) Predestination. That is, 
Christ made an atonement for all sinful men universally and 
indiscriminately, and the Spirit likewise calls all men universally 
and indiscriminately, and then the Father elects such as believe, 
repent, and obey the gospel, and reprobates all other persons. 
This scheme holds the mind of the Father in abeyance until 
he has seen the results of the work of Christ and of the 
Spirit. It thus violates the Trinitarian order of thought, life 
and action. The house of many mansions must logically wait 
until the divine Architect can find out for how many persons 
there will be need. The gospel represents that men are 
chosen to be holy, while this view represents men as being 
chosen because they are holy. According to the gospel, men 
choose Christ because he first chose them; according to this 
programme, God chooses men because they first chose him. 
According to the gospel, God first loves us in Christ Jesus ; 
according to this interpretation, we first love God in Christ 
Jesus, and then he consequentially loves us. 

Sentimentalists. — Sentimentalists, Pelagians, Rationalists, 
and all who are neither sublapsarians nor supralapsarians, nor 
new schoolmen, nor Arminians, construe the scheme of grace 
by deleting altogether the doctrine of predestination. For 
them there are but two elements in the plan of salvation: (1) 
Atonement, (2) Vocation. The Father is but a spectator of 
the saving work of Christ, and the Spirit — a mere onlooker at 
what these two are doing in the sinful world — a mere receiver 
of the results which they obtain. 

Calvinists. — The ordo salutis of the Calvinistic creeds 
and confessions is: (1) Predestination, (2) Atonement, (3) 
Vocation. In other and interpretative words: (1) Redemp- 
tion as conceived by the Father, (2) Redemption as executed 
by the Son, and (3) Redemption as applied by the Spirit. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Covenant of Grace 

Soteriologists of the federal school think that the Plan 
of Salvation took the form of a Covenant. They specifically 
call it The Covenant of Grace. That other arrangement under 
which occurred the sin and fall of the race they call The Cove- 
nant of Works. 

Elements. — A covenant is an agreement between two or 
more persons. Analyzed, there are three factors or elements 
in every such agreement: (i) Parties, (2) Conditions or 
Stipulations, and (3) Sanctions. That is, in every covenant 
there are the contracting parties who make the agreement; 
then there is the stipulation, or matter about which the agree- 
ment is made, and then there are the sanctions, or the thing 
which makes the engagement sacred and binding — the thing 
promised on condition that the agreement is kept and the 
forfeit or penalty which must follow on condition the agree- 
ment is broken by either party. 

Parties. — The parties to this covenant of grace are the 
three persons of the Godhead. They are equal and sovereign, 
and so capable of contracting with each other. This covenant 
is made between them, about sinful men. Sinners are not 
contracting parties. They are neither metaphysically nor 
morally capable of contracting with Almighty God. A holy 
being could enter into covenant relations with a sinless crea- 
ture, but he could not enter into such an engagement with a 
creature whose moral depravity renders him incapable of com- 
plying with the very terms of such a contract. The party of 
the first part in this covenant of grace is the Father and the 
parties of the second part are the Son and the Holy Spirit. 
It is an inter-trinitarian agreement concerning the salvation 
of sinful men. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 19 

Stipulations. — In this covenant the Father agrees to equip 
the Son with a human nature necessary to perform his re- 
deeming task, to plentifully sustain him in his undertaking 
and give him a people for his reward, organized into a king- 
dom. In it the Son engaged to become incarnate, to obey per- 
fectly both the penal and preceptive requirements of that 
moral law which men had violated — in short, to make an 
atonement. In it the Spirit engaged to convict, convert and 
sanctify sinful men and present them to the Father a holy 
people, without any moral spot, or blemish, or wrinkle, or 
any such thing. In short, the issues of this transaction hang 
upon the obedience of the Son and Spirit to the conditions 
under which they are to be sent into the world upon this 
saving mission. 

Sanctions. — The sanctions of the covenant of grace are 
life and death — life upon condition of obedience, and death 
upon condition of disobedience. That is, the Son, if he makes 
the stipulated atonement is to have all the blessings promised 
in the covenant, and if he fails he would forfeit his life as 
any other transgressor; and the Spirit, if he converts and 
sanctifies according to the agreement, is to have all the bless- 
ings promised thereunder, and if he breaks down in his task 
he too must forfeit his standing before a righteous and cove- 
nant-keeping God. It is a solemn transaction. Failure on 
the part of either person in the transaction would be the 
failure and break-down of the Godhead. It cannot fail. The 
covenant of grace is bound to issue in triumph because of the 
very nature of the parties entering into the agreement. 

Sinners. — Now the desideratum is how can sinful men 
become beneficiaries of this covenant of grace made between 
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. True, it was 
made about them; but how are they to become participants? 
Sinful men need two things in order to become partakers of 
this covenant: (1) a legal right and (2) a conscious experi- 
ence. The first is given by election, and the second by con- 
version. No man, and especially no sinful man, has a natural 
right — a right that inheres in and arises out of the very nature 



20 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

of the case — to be a beneficiary of this covenant. Such a 
legal title must be given him by grace. He must be appointed, 
or designated, an heir. This act of appointment Calvinistic 
soteriologists call election. By it they are accustomed to say 
that the sinner is given a right to become a Christian. But 
an heir must have not only a title to his estate ; he must also 
actually enter upon his inheritance and consciously enjoy it. 
It is conversion by the Spirit that makes a legal Christian 
a conscious Christian. No sinful man has the power to enter 
upon the blessings of this covenant of grace even if he had 
the legal right to do so. A something has to be done within 
his nature. The Spirit converts him and leads to unite him- 
self to Christ by faith. It is, therefore, by election and con- 
version that the sinful man becomes a beneficiary of this 
covenant of grace between the three persons of the Godhead. 
Not by one, but by both. Election without conversion would 
give a title without the conscious blessing; and conversion 
without election would give him the blessing without a right 
to it. In short, election by the Father gives the sinner a right 
to the atonement made by Christ, and conversion by the Spirit 
gives him that atonement as a life and experience. 

Grace and Works. — The Scriptures persistently and con- 
sistently contrast grace and works. They tell us that if sinful 
men are saved by works, then they are not saved by grace, 
and that if they are saved by grace, then they are not saved 
by works. They are antithetical systems. They cannot be 
compounded or mixed. Sinners are salvable by grace just 
because they are not salvable by works. A "grace" is any- 
thing which is given; a "work" is anything which is done. 
In a scheme of "grace" man is a beneficiary, a recipient, a 
patient ; in a scheme of "works" he is a doer, an agent. Hence 
the first covenant, the one under which man sinned and fell, 
is called a Covenant of Works, because its blessings were sus- 
pended upon something which he was to do ; while the sec- 
ond, the one under which he is saved, is called a Covenant 
of Grace, because its blessings are suspended upon some- 
thing which is to be given to him. His title is given to him 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 21 

by election ; the atonement is made for him by Christ ; he is 
regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit. Hence he does not 
save himself; he is saved by grace. The triune God is the 
saving agent and he is the saved patient. This is but saying 
that sinful man does not save himself, but that he is saved by 
God. 

Dispensations. — There never has been any other or any 
different programme of redemption since the fall of man. The 
scheme of grace has had different dispensations, or modifica- 
tions, which differ not in substance, but only in form. One 
of these is historically called the Patriarchal Dispensation, (from 
Adam to Moses), in which the patriarch, or head of the fam- 
ily and tribe, was the minister of religion employed by the 
Spirit of God in leading men into the covenant of grace. A 
second is called the Mosaic Dispensation, (from Moses to 
Pentecost), in which the people of Israel were employed by 
the Spirit of God as his instrumentality in leading sinful 
men into the covenant of grace. And the third is called the 
Christian Dispensation, (from Pentecost to the end of the 
world), in which the Spirit of God employs the Church with 
its ministers as the agency through which he leads sinful men 
into the covenant of grace. The Millennium, (if there is to 
be one), is but a signal and distinguished period within the 
Christian Dispensation. God has not had, and will at no 
time have, any other method of saving sinful men but the 
Covenant of Grace, which sinners enter, legally by election, 
and consciously by conversion, showing itself in faith, repent- 
ance and evangelical obedience. 



CHAPTER III. 

Predestination 

Purpose. — The Westminster Catechism defines the de- 
crees of God as his "eternal purpose, according to the counsel 
of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained 
whatsoever comes to pass." 

While the decrees of God are many they are all articulated 
into one purpose, plan, or programme, having the divine glory 
as the chief of the whole scheme. The items in the universe 
may be broadly classified as, (i) Things and (2) Persons. 
As the decree of God terminates upon Things it is called 
Fore ordination and as it terminates upon Persons it is called 
Predestination. 

Foreordination. — The Westminster Confession states the 
doctrine of foreordination in this language : 

"God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy 
counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain what- 
soever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the 
author of sin ; nor is violence offered to the will of the crea- 
tures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken 
away, but rather established." 

The Calvinistic theology holds that God has foreordained 
whatsoever comes to pass in all the amplitudes of space, in 
all the range of universal history, so that there is nothing 
that can be excepted from its sweep and scope ; yet all this 
has been done in such a manner: 

1. That God is not the author of sin. 

2. That no violence is done to free agency. 

3. That the efficiency of second causes is not set aside. 

4. But in such a way that these three things are estab- 
lished. 

How can this be? How can our theologians devise some 
method by which they can hold the universality of the divine 
foreordination and yet save the sinlessness of God, the free- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 23 

dom of man and the efficiency of second causes? There are 
many who think the feat impossible. But Calvinists seek to 
show the reconciliation by drawing a distinction between (1) 
efficacious decrees and (2) permissive decrees. 

Efficacious Decrees are those decisions of the divine mind 
in which God determines that the thing decreed shall come to 
pass and he is the direct or indirect cause of the eventuation 
of the thing concerned. For example, the creation of Adam. 

Permissive Decrees, on the other hand, are those decisions 
of the divine mind in which God determines to permit or suffer 
the thing decreed to come to pass and for the eventuation of 
which some other agent or agency is the responsible cause. 
For example, the sin of Adam. 

Now, when we understand that God has foreordained 
whatsoever comes to pass — some things efficaciously and some 
things permissively — it is apparent that there is no inconsist- 
ency between the doctrine of universal foreordination and the 
sinlessness of God, the freedom of men and the efficiency of 
second causes. In other words, foreordination necessitates 
some things and suffers some other things. The divine 
causality is with respect to some things efficient and in re- 
spect to some other things permissive. 

Predestination is a technical term for the decree of God 
as it terminates upon persons — men and angels. It is stated 
by the Westminster Confession in this language : 

"By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, 
some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, 
and others foreordained to everlasting death." 

Our theologians, for the sake of clear explication, divide 
predestination also into (1) efficacious predestination and (2) 
permissive predestination. That is, God effectively does some 
things for men and angels, and some other things he per- 
mits men and angels to do for themselves. For some items 
in the history of these persons God is the efficacious cause, 
but for some other items he is only the permissive cause — 
th*> cause which does not prevent, but suffers them to follow 



24 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the listings of their own minds and the desires of their own 
hearts. 

Election and Reprobation. — Predestination is divided into 
(i) Election and (2) Reprobation. One — Election — is an effi- 
cacious decree, in which God determines to save its objects, 
and the other — Reprobation — is a permissive decree, in which 
God decides to preterit or pass by the objects of this decree 
and leave them to follow the listings of their own minds and 
the desires of their own hearts. He is the causal agent in re- 
demption ; he is the permissive agent in damnation. He saves 
men ; he allows or suffers men to destroy themselves. In the 
one case he is agent and they are patients; in the other they 
are agents and he is patient. He saves; they destroy. He 
is the author of their salvation ; they are the authors of their 
damnation. Election is efficacious; damnation is permissive. 

Proof. — That there is some sort of doctrine of Predesti- 
nation in the Scriptures cannot be gainsaid. Expositors may 
disagree about the nature of it, but they cannot deny the fact. 
The word itself, the idea, equivalent expressions and phrases 
and representations, are here, there, yonder, and everywhere 
on the sacred pages. 

Proorizo (to predestinate) occurs seven times. prog- 
inosko (to foreknow) and prognosis (foreknowledge) oc- 
cur nine times. Eklego (to select) and eklektos (the elect) 
and ekloge (election) are used forty-nine times. Besides 
there are such other words as diatasso (to order), Kathistemi 
(to arrange), Kataskeuazo to (prepare), Krino (to decree), 
orizo (to determine). The Redeemer speaks of those who 
were "given to him," and that act of donation was pre-tem- 
poral ; the apostles speak of those who were "called according 
to God's purpose" and that before the foundation of the world. 

It would seem to be impossible for those who read the 
Christian Scriptures not to see and feel that there is some 
doctrine of predestination set forth in them which as a loyal 
expositor he must interpret and as a faithful theologian he 
must co-ordinate somehow in his system of Christian doc- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 25 

trine. As a matter of fact, all the evangelical theologies do 
recognize the existence of this doctrine while they disagree in 
the construction of it and the place which they assign it in 
their soteriologies. There are few attempts at complete eva- 
sion of it. Few minds can be content until they have made 
some satisfactory disposition of this tenet. If any have come 
to look upon it as a distinctively Calvinistic article, and then 
throw all the obliquy associated with it upon this party, it is 
not because it is his exclusive dogma but rather because he 
has the courage or the hardihood to attempt to interpret it 
and place it in his soteriology as one of the items of divine 
revelation. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Election 

Predestination is divided into (i) Election and (2) Repro- 
bation. These are to be considered separately. 

Function. — The function or office of Election in the 
scheme of grace is to give to its subjects a status under the 
Covenant of Grace — to confer a title and right to the benefits 
and privileges of God's redemptive programme. How are 
sinful men made partakers of a covenant made about them 
between the three persons of the Godhead? The Calvinistic 
soteriology gives a threefold answer to this momentous ques- 
tion: (1) by the election of the Father, (2) by the atonement 
of the Son, (3) by the conversion of the Spirit. All three are 
necessary to the introduction of any sinful person into the 
scheme of salvation. Analyzed, they are but the three-thirds 
of the complete plan of redemption. 

Election gives him the status or standing of a Christian : 
makes him a nominal Christian. Atonement removes his guilt 
and makes him an eligible Christian : makes him a formal 
Christian. Conversion gives him a new nature, by which he 
performs the acts of a Christian : makes him an actual and 
conscious Christian. Faith brings out, in consciousness and 
life, what the Father and the Son and the Spirit have done 
for him. 

To illustrate : Election by the people gives to a par- 
ticular citizen the right to be President of the United States. 
If, however, this particular citizen were resting under some 
civil disability which bars him from the office, some action 
would have to be taken to remove such disability and make 
him eligible to this high office : something analogous to, or 
serving the purpose of, an atonement. If, however, he were 
elected and eligible but was personally utterly indisposed and 
disinclined and unwilling to accept this office, some change 
would have to be wrought in his temper and disposition and 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 27 

inclination before he would become the actual and conscious 
President of the' United States: some change analogous to, 
or resembling, conversion. 

The divine election gives a sinful man a title to heaven. 
But his guilt constitutes a legal disability, or moral bar, to 
his admission to those holy precincts : the atonement of Christ 
takes away that disability, that barrier, and makes him eligi- 
ble. But he is disinclined and unwilling to pursue the course 
which leads to this heavenly destiny : the conversion of the 
Spirit gives him a new heart, changes his unwillingness, and 
causes him to enter upon the actual joys and experiences of 
a Christian life. 

Election gives a title. It gives nothing but a title. But 
a title is a necessary factor in his salvation. 

Definition. — Election is an eternal act of God in which, 
according to his sovereign grace and not on account of any 
foreseen qualities, he chooses not all but an indefinite number 
of sinful men to be the beneficiaries of the atonement of Christ, 
the subjects of the converting operations of the Spirit and 
the heirs at last of heavenly blessedness. 

Exposition. — But let us cross-question this doctrine and 
bring out its meaning by question and answer. 

1. Who elects? God. 

2. Who are the elect? An indefinite number of sinners, 

3. When were they elected? Before the foundation of the 
world. 

4. Why were they elected? Not for any foreseen conduct 
or character, but for reasons which God has not revealed. 

5. To what were they elected? To all the blessings of 
Chrisfs atonement and to the conversion of the Spirit. 

6. How is' their election made known? By faith and re- 
pentance. 

7. What is the instrumentality of producing these certi- 
ficates of election — faith and repentance? Preaching. 



28 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Proofs. — The proofs of Election fall into three classes: 
(i) biblical, (2) rational, (3) historical. 

1. Biblical Proofs. — I do not propose to give a tithe of 
the Scriptures which support the fact of Election, for indeed 
the doctrine threads the entire revelation of God and is inter- 
woven in the whole redemptive story. I shall give only a 
few specimen proof-texts. 

Christ said, "All that the Father giveth me shall come 
to me" (Jno. 6:37). There is a portion of the sinful world 
which is referred to as "those given to Christ by his Father." 
This idea is elaborated by that contrast which runs through 
the Scriptures between "my people" and "those who are not 
my people," and by the figurative classification of mankind 
into "sheep and goats," which distinction runs to the day of 
final judgment. — "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen 
you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, 
and that your fruit should remain" (Jno. 15:16). 

When the Gentiles heard the gospel, the record is, "as 
many as were ordained to eternal life, believed" (Acts 13:48). 
They believed because they were ordained ; they were not 
ordained because they believed. Their election was causative 
and their believing was consequential. We reverse the Scrip- 
ture when we reverse this order. 

In his great epistle to the Romans, Paul asserts and illus- 
trates the doctrine in many places and phrases. His ordo 
salutis is, "whom he did predestinate, them he also called ; 
and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he 
justified, them he also glorified" (Rom. 8:30). Predestination 
is in order to calling; calling is in order to justification; 
justification is in order to sanctification ; and sanctification is 
in order to glorification. They are links in a chain : all of them 
are necessary to its full length and completeness. 

He outlines the way the Ephesians and himself became 
Christians in this language : "Blessed be the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all 
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; accord- 
ing as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 29 

the world, that we should be holy and without blame before 
him in love : having predestinated us unto the adoption of 
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good 
pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, 
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved" (Eph. 
1:3-6). This language declares that the whole Christian out- 
put at Ephesus was the product of election and predestina- 
tion. We are not authorized in making the case at Ephesus 
exceptional and unique. 

The following exhortation was given to the Colossian 
Christians : "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and 
beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, 
meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiv- 
ing one another, if any have a quarrel against any." (Col. 3: 
12, 13). These disciples were enjoined to illustrate a Chris- 
tian life and exemplify the graces of godliness because they 
were "the elect of God." It was not their Christian character 
and conduct which made them elect; it was their antecedent 
election that made it logical and necessary that they should 
lead godly lives. It is not life that makes election, but elec- 
tion that makes life. 

When he bursts out into thanksgiving for the Thessa- 
lonian Christians, he says he does so "because God hath from 
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification 
of the Spirit and belief of the truth ; whereunto he called you 
by our gospel" (2 Thess. 2:13, 14). Here he declares that 
they were chosen unto salvation, and that salvation is via 
faith and sanctification. They were not chosen because they 
believed and were sanctified, but they believe and are sancti- 
fied because they were first chosen. They were elected to be 
saved through faith and sanctification. 

When we turn to Peter, writing to the Christians scat- 
tered throughout Northwestern Asia, he describes them as 
"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, 
through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprink- 
ling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 1:2). These dis- 
ciples were elect; but they were not elected because of their 



30 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

evangelical obedience and blood-sprinkling: they were, on 
the contrary, elected that they might obey and be sprinkled 
with atoning blood. 

When we look into the last book of revelation we read 
in the apocalyptic account of the end of all human story on 
the earth : "and whosover was not found written in the book 
of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:15). God 
knows the end from the beginning. The catalogue of the re- 
deemed was decretively made up in the counsels of eternity. 
The final judgment will respect the register, the lists, census 
enumeration, found in the Book of Life. 

The Scriptures teach us that regeneration is by the Spirit : 
"Born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
will of man, but of God" (Jno. 1 :i3) ; that faith is the gift of 
God: "the fruit of the Spirit is . . . faith" (Gal. 5:22); that 
repentance is the gift of God : "then hath God also to the 
Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18); and all 
good works and graces of character are also the gifts of God 
(Eph. 2:10; Gal. 5:22, 23). If election, therefore, be predi- 
cated upon foreseen faith and repentance and regeneration 
and sanctification and good works and Christian graces — 
upon Christian character andj conduct — it is grounded upon 
those qualities which God alone can give. He conditions a 
man's election upon something which God does. 

2. Rational Proofs. — Not only, however, do the Christian 
Scriptures categorically assert the doctrine of Election, but 
there are certain rational arguments which would compel 
sound and consistent thinking to hypothecate it, even if it 
were not so much as hinted in the Bible. These rational argu- 
ments for Election I am pleased to name, (1) the logical, 
(2) the scientific, (3) the philosophical and (4) the theological. 

(1) Logical Argument. — This may be stated in the form 
of the logician's disjuntive conditional, as follows : Either 
God elects no sinful man; or he elects every sinful man; or 
he elects some sinful men. None, all, some — these are ex- 
haustive categories. We are shut up to making our choice 
between them. First, if God elects no sinner, then all the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 31 

race are non-elect. If he choses to save nobody, then uni- 
versal damnation is the logical consequence. But there is a 
multitude saved which no man can number; consequently the 
hypothesis that God elects nobody is shockingly incorrect. 
Second, if God elects every sinner, and passes by no person 
in the dispensation of his saving mercy, then universal sal- 
vation is the result. Universalists so hold and joyfully de- 
clare. But at least some are lost — the man who has com- 
mitted "the unpardonable sin," if no one else. Consequently 
this second proposition must be dismissed as untenable by 
any others than uiversalists. Third, the only proposition of 
the original three left is that God elects some sinners — chooses 
to save some men. We are, therefore, shut up to holding 
either, universal damnation, or universal salvation, or partial 
salvation. Election is like heaven — it includes a multitude 
which no man can number, but it does not include the whole 
human race. 

(2) Scientific Argument. — A second rational argument 
for election founds itself upon the scientific doctrine of "natu- 
ral selection." If natural philosophy is confident and assured 
about anything to-day it is this dogma. We are told that 
nature has selected the forms which it would produce, the 
types which it would perpetuate, the species which it would 
destroy and those which it would preserve, and all the indi- 
vidual variations which it would make permanent or transient. 
So it has gone on exercising this elective and selective pre- 
rogative until it has differentiated the original homogeneous 
universe into the present heterogeneous world of minerals, 
plants, and animals and human beings. How can any theist 
who is enamoured of the doctrine of "natural selection" revile 
at the doctrine of "divine election"? If the divine method in 
nature is selective, the divine method in redemption would 
analogically be elective. "Selective" and "elective" are words 
too close akin in meaning for most people to see any differ- 
ence at all between them. This is, at least, an argument 
ad hominem to all those who believe in evolution and its pro- 



32 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

cesses. Call to mind evolution's graveyards of creatures 
whose carcasses have been reprobated ; the forms and crea- 
tures which have been reprobated far outnumber those which 
have been selected for perpetuation. The reprobations of the 
God of nature are simply appalling; and yet there are those 
who are simply horrified that there should be any moral 
reprobates among the countless millions of sinful men who 
have utterly failed in the moral struggle for the higher spirit- 
ual life ! 

(3) Theological Argument. — A third argument for elec- 
tion is founded upon the theological conception of the nature 
of God as an infinite being. If he is infinite and perfect, he 
must foreknow all things ; he must foreknow all men as sinful 
and immoral ; and in the light of that knowledge he must fore- 
know his own mind and intentions concerning them ; he must 
foreknow how unable they are to save themselves ; he must 
foreknow that he alone can save any of them ; and, in the 
light of this knowledge, he must foreknow his intentions con- 
cerning them ; he must foreknow that he will be gracious and 
pardon none of them, or all of them, or some of them. He 
cannot have such an act of foreknowledge without having a 
predetermining will concerning them. He certainly fore- 
knows who will be saved ; he certainly foreknows whom he 
will save ; and he certainly intended to do all he does do ; else 
he is subject to blunders and surprises. All such conclusions 
are perfectly unthinkable if God is such a being as theology 
teaches him to be. 

3. Historical Proof. — Not only is election proved by 
Scripture and reason ; it is also proved by the whole course of 
history and providence. - - 

If we go back to earliest times, Cain was rejected and 
Abel was accepted. 

If we come down a step further in biblical history, Noah 
and his household were accepted and the rest of the antedilu- 
vian world was rejected and their carcasses were scattered on 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 33 

the wild waste of waters in testimony of the divine reproba- 
tion of them on account of their wickedness. 

When we cross the Flood, Abraham was called and the 
remainder of the world was left in heathen darkness and death. 

From among all the nations of the earth Israel was 
chosen and the others were left outside the pale of God's 
covenanted mercies. 

If we look at God's providential dealings with the world 
we see distinctions made by his hand among races and 
peoples and nations and individuals. Some men are better 
endowed by nature and more favourably conditioned by provi- 
dence than others. These observed inequalities in the story 
and life of races, peoples, nations and individuals is the cause 
of much bitter pessimism and human complainings at the 
ways of providence and at the methods of grace. 

This is not the place for a theodicy — the vindication of 
'he ways of God with men. These facts are cited to ground 
a rational expectation of parallel or similar distinctions in the 
realm of redemption — in the dispensations of the blessings of 
redemption. Any one at all familiar with the discriminations 
in providence ought to be prepared to final analogous dis- 
tinctions in the course and conduct of the scheme of grace. 

Efficacious. — Election is an efficacious decree — a decree 
in which God has determined that the result shall be, and not 
one in which he has decided merely to permit the result to 
occur. 

This proposition brings the Calvinistic and Presbyterian 
parties into sharp collision with some other interpreters — 
with all those, for example, who think election is conditioned 
upon a foresight of repentance, faith and evangelical obedi- 
ence. They think salvation is only permissively decreed — 
that as God permitted men to sin so he permits them to save 
themselves. In other words, God has made a provision for 
the redemption of men even as he made provision for their 
sin and fall, and has issued a proclamation of his willingness 
for every one to avail himself of these gracious and saving 
opportunities. 



34 Christian Salvation— Its Doctrine and Experience 

Which is correct? Is election an efficacious or a permis- 
sive decree? Does God save, or does he merely permit men 
to save themselves? Calvinists believe that this saving decree 
is efficacious and support their belief by the following con- 
siderations: 

i. By the Psychological Effects of Sin.— The Scriptures 
represent sinful and unconverted men as "blind" and "deaf" 
and "dumb" and "paralyzed" and "dead." These and other 
figures thev emplov to represent man's spiritual inability and 
moral self-helplessness. If there is a shred of truth in them— 
if they are not a gross misrepresentation of his religious 
condition — if there is any foundation for them in the psycho- 
ligical state which has resulted from sinning — of what earthlv 
use can a mere permissive decree be to such a oerson? Laza- 
rus, four days dead, needs something else than a permit to 
come out of his grave. Bartimeus, stone blind, needs some- 
thing else than a bare permit to see. The oaralvtic, helpless 
on his couch, needs something- else than a simple permit to 
take up his bed and go to his house. The sinner's condition 
is such that a divine permission to correct it cannot possibly 
be effective for his salvation. It was all that he needed to 
fall — for God to stand aside and take no hand in the matter, a 
mere onlooker and non-preventer of the affair — because man 
had power. But now that he is fallen and is spiritually self- 
helpless, it can do him no good if God only opens a door of 
redemption, and then stands by without interfering, a mere 
sufferer and onlooker. The poor fellow at the pool of Be- 
thesda had the permission of God, angels and men to get into 
the waters when disturbed. It was not permission which he 
needed ; it was for some one to put him into the pool. A live 
man may take advantage of a permission, or non-prevention, 
to commit suicide, but, having taken his life, how can a per- 
mission to raise himself from the dead be of any practical 
consequence to him? If election, therefore, is of any value to 
the sinner, it must be efficacious and not merely permissive. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 35 

2. Because of Grace. — The Scriptures persistently and 
consistently represent all sinful persons as being saved by 
grace. Grace proceeds from God — it is specifically that power 
by which he saves sinful men. If it is divine grace which 
converts, regenerates and saves, how can the gospel be a mere 
divine permit to this wicked world to come back into the 
divine favour? Grace is something forceful and efficacious 
and is not something permissive and optional. 

3. Because God is Agent. — God is always the agent in 
human redemption. He takes the initiative. "Ye have not 
chosen me, but I have chosen you" (Jno. 15:16). "We love 
him because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). "Whom he 
did predestinate, them he also . . . glorified" (Rom. 8:30). 
"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation 
of the world" (Eph. 1 4). All such expressions, abounding in 
Scripture, are inconsistent with the idea that God's attitude 
towards the salvation of sinners is one of bare permission. 
They indicate that God has set out upon this task with the in- 
tention of effecting it. 

For such reasons the Calvinist cannot believe that the 
gospel is nothing more than a mere permit issued by God to 
this world in which he suffers men to avail themselves of the 
benefits of the covenant of grace if they are so minded. He 
believes that God is a real Saviour and not a bare permitter — ■ 
that God efficaciously chooses, that Christ efficaciously atones, 
that the Spirit efficaciously calls and converts. In short, the 
saving programme is not merely advisory and recommenda- 
tory but one which the Deity undertakes to effect. In Eden 
God was a mere spectator and onlooker, observing without 
prevention or interference as our first parents ate the forbidden 
fruit, but in the gospel he is not thus a mere spectator, watch- 
ing men as they save themselves as he looked on as they de- 
stroyed themselves — wishing them well, but exerting no effici- 
ency upon the result. The redeeming action of the Father, 
the Son and the Holy Ghost is not exhausted in the idea that 



36 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

God submitted a redemptive proposition to this world to be 
accepted or rejected as sinful men might elect. 

He set out with the serious purpose to save — to save 
some, none, or all, of the human race. He did not undertake 
the salvation of all, but he did undertake to make a multitude 
which no man can count the heirs of the covenant of grace. 
This is the decree of election, and it is efficacious in its char- 
acter and not merely permissive. 



CHAPTER V 

Reprobation 

One hemisphere of Predestination is Election and the 
other is Reprobation. 

Definition. — Reprobation is a Latin compound, made up 
of re (again) and probo (to try). A reprobate is one who has 
been tested and abandoned — a hopeless moral failure. In 
civil procedure, a court may probate a will, and then subse- 
quently re-open the mater, and re-probate it by re-affirming 
the original decision. A criminal court may try a case, and 
then review its decision and re-affirm its judgment. Words 
rarely' ever lose the aroma of their derivation. 

Reprobation, in theology, is that act of God in which, 
after reviewing the case of certain sinful men, he decides to 
pass them by with his saving grace and re-affirms his judg- 
ment of condemnation upon them. It is a literal re-probation, 
a re-trial, resulting in the re-affirmation of the original sen- 
tence of condemnation. Their case is analogous to that of the 
criminal whose sentence in the lower court is reviewed and 
re-affirmed by the last court of appeal. 

Statement. — The Westminster Confession states this doc- 
trine in this language: 

"The rest of mankind (the non-elect), God was pleased, 
according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, 
whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, 
for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to 
pass by, and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their 
sin, to the praise of his glorious justice." 

Analysis. — There are consequently two elements or fac- 
tors in Reprobation: (i) Pretention and (2) Condemnation. 

Pretention. — All those whom God does not incorporate 
in the covenant of grace he passes by in the distribution of 



38 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

his pardoning mercies. Pretention is derived from praeter 
(beyond) and eo (to go). God either includes all persons in 
his plan of salvation; or he does not include them all. Those 
not included are passed by. He either gives all men to Christ, 
or he does not. Those whom he does not give are passed by. 
He either saves all men ; or he does not. Those whom he does 
not save he passes by. 

Sovereign. — Why does he pass them by? Pretention is 
a sovereign act. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy, 
and whom he will he hardeneth. Why does he not save all 
men? Do you say, Because they all do not believe? Then 
why does he not enable and persuade all to believe and obey 
the gospel? Do you say it is because he cannot? If he can 
convert one, why cannot he convert another, why can he not 
convert all? If he can open the blind eyes of Bartimaeus, why 
can he not open all or any blind eyes ? If he can raise Lazarus 
from the dead, why does he not raise all men from the dead? 
The only rational explanation is his sovereignty. 

Condemnation. — But this action of God is not a bare pass- 
ing by. He does something more than merely go by with the 
blessings of his grace. He leaves these persons under the 
sentence of condemnation which he originally passed upon 
them. He does more than that. He reviews their case, and 
re-affirms that sentence. He finds it was right and proper in 
the first instance, and so re-condemns them for their sin. 

Judicial. — This aspect of reprobation is not sovereign 
but judicial. His withholding his mercy is sovereign; he may 
give that to whom he pleases. But his condemnation is judi- 
cial; it is predicated upon the guilt and sin of those who are 
affected by it. "Ordains them to dishonor and wrath /or their 
sin," says the Confession. God never condemns the sinless; 
he never re-condemns the sinless. It is analogous to the 
action of a governor who examines the cases of a number of 
prisoners and pardons some and leaves others under their 
condemnation. His leaving them under condemnation is 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 39 

equivalent to his re-condemning them, or approving of their 
penal condition. It would be an outrage if he found them 
guiltless and yet declined to give the relief which was in his 
power. Or it faintly resembles the action of a supreme court 
which reviews a number of cases, reverses some of the de- 
cisions and delivers those affected by it; and declines to re- 
verse, but re-affirms, other decisions and establishes the judg- 
ment of the court below. 

Permissive Decree. — While election is an efficacious de- 
cree, reprobation is a permissive decree. It is negative and 
not positive ; God exercises no casual efficiency to prevent any 
one from accepting the overtures of his mercy; he only de- 
clines to put forth any causal power to constrain them to 
accept his gospel. He constrains the elect to faith and repent- 
ance, but he leaves the non-elect to the listings of their own 
minds and the desires of their own hearts. He changes the 
natures of the elect, so that they will to believe, but he does 
not alter the hearts of the non-elect, and so leaves them to 
pursue their own course in sin and ruin. Election is an effica- 
cious decree, but reprobation is a permissive decree. 

If I lift up a stone with my hand, I am the efficient cause 
of its uplift. But if I let go the stone, it is not I, but gravity 
which is the efficient cause of its downfall. If two men fall 
into the river and I rescue one of them from drowning, I am 
the efficient cause of his rescue. But if the other perishes, it 
is not I, but the water, which drowns him. If God saves John, 
he is the efficient cause of his salvation ; but if Judas perishes, 
it is his sinfulness which carried him to his own place. My 
attitude towards the falling stone is one of permission or 
sufferance; I do not prevent it from falling; I am only the 
permissive cause of its falling. My attitude towards the 
drowning man is one of permission or sufferance; I do not 
prevent him from drowning; I am the permissive cause of his 
death. My relation to both events is one of permission, of 
allowance, of sufferance, of non-prevention. So if God lifts one 
sinful being to heaven, he is the efficient cause of that man's 



40 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

salvation; he is his Saviour. But if another sinful man goes 
to perdition, it is not God who destroys him ; it is the gravity 
of his own sinfulness which carries him down. God's relation 
to this event is one of permission, of allowance, of sufferance, 
of non-prevention. You may blame me for letting the stone 
fall, or for letting the man drown ; or you may blame God for 
letting Adam eat of the forbidden fruit, or for not preventing 
Judas from betraying his Lord, or for not causing all sinners 
to repent and believe; but you cannot say that I was the 
cause of the falling of the stone or of the drowning of the 
man, or that God was the cause of the fall of Adam or of Judas 
going to his own place. 

In the parable, the priest and the Levite passed by the 
man who had fallen among thieves, while the good Samaritan 
ministered to his needs. We censure the priest and the Levite 
for their conduct because they were under a humanitarian 
and moral obligation to be kind to the unfortunate man. But 
the Presbyterian does not believe that sinful men are simply 
moral unfortunates, like the man who had fallen among the 
thieves, but that they are sinners and criminal transgressors 
of moral law. He does not believe that God passes the repro- 
bate by as mere unfortunates who appeal for mercy, but as 
moral criminals who have been disobedient to his righteous 
and rightful requirements. He does not believe that it is a 
violation of the law of good neighborhood for God to pass 
by some criminals and show saving favours to others any 
more than it is brutal in a governor to pass by some convicts 
and show executive clemency to others. Reprobation is predi- 
cated upon the sinfulness and ill-desert of those who are not 
made the beneficiaries of God's saving grace. 

Apparent Contradictions. — There are many passages in 
Scripture which apparently contradict the proposition that 
reprobation is a permissive decree — such as those which rep- 
resent God as "blinding the understanding," "hardening the 
heart," "stopping the ears," and otherwise conditioning some 
persons so that they cannot see and believe, cannot repent 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 41 

and be converted. Presbyterians believe that all such pass- 
ages may be fairly interpreted by construing the divine action 
in them as permissive — as the result of his non-interference 
with the moral and spiritual condition of the persons referred 
to. We are told that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and also 
that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. It is a common and 
satisfactory explanation that God hardened the heart of the 
Egyptian king by letting him alone and leaving him to follow 
the judgments of his own mind and the desires of his own 
heart. We are told that God blinded the mind of Israel, and 
that Israel blinded his own mind. It is a common and satisfy- 
ing explanation that God blinded the mind of the chosen 
people by leaving them to their own self-willed sin and folly. 
We are told that God shut up Pilate and Herod, the Gentiles 
and the Jews, to the crucifixion of Jesus, and yet that it was 
the Romans and the Jews who perpetrated this most atrocious 
of all murders. It is an old explanation that God left the per- 
sons concerned in the crucifixion of Christ to follow their own 
will and desires in this dreadful matter and so brought it 
about by his non-action, his non-prevention. So with Judas. 
His betrayal of Christ was predicted; and it came about by 
God's not interfering with his evil heart. It is a common- 
place observation that whatever is let alone deteriorates — the 
field, the animal, the child, all require care and culture for 
life and well-being. It looks, therefore, as if pretention is a 
decision on God's part to let some persons alone, and leave 
them, in the language of the proverb, "To eat the fruit of their 
own way, and to be tilled with their own device" (Prov. 1 131). 

Criticism. — The Presbyterian has suffered much censo- 
rious criticism by his opponents, and misrepresentation by 
his own friends because this distinction between the effica- 
cious and permissive decree has been overlooked. He does 
believe that "God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass" 
— some things efficaciously and some things permissively — 
that God, has determined from all eternity to do some things 
himself and to permit his free creatures to do some other 



42 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

things. He believes that election is an efficacious decree, in 
consequence of which God works, through the gospel, within 
his people "both to will and to do of his good pleasure" — thus 
becoming their efficacious Saviour. But he also believes that 
"the rest of mankind," other than those who are saved, God 
passes by and leaves them to follow the listings of their own 
minds and the desires of their own hearts, and "for their 
sins," because they are wicked and impenitent, ordains them 
to "wrath." He prevents no man from accepting the gospel. 
He invites and urges all to do so. He constrains some to 
accept it, and leaves the rest to do as they please. He invites 
all men to his gospel feast; he compels some to come, he 
prevents none. The reprobate have a divine permit to do as 
they please about it. The elect he graciously compels to 
accept it — to hear it and obey the gospel call. Election is 
efficacious; reprobation is permissive. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Jesus of Nazareth 

Who was Jesus of Nazareth? 

This is the most momentous question over which this 
world has ever held awful and anxious debate with itself. 

When he was born, Herod the king was "troubled, and 
all Jerusalem with him." The monarch assembled the 
"Priests and scribes/' all the ecclesiastics, and diligently in- 
quired about the time, the place, and the meaning of the ad- 
vent of this Child into this world, and set to work to destroy 
him, by issuing that decree which slaughtered all the "inno- 
cents" in Israel. (Matt. 2). 

When John the Baptist, the rugged forerunner, was in 
Herod's dungeon waiting for his execution, in a solemn mo- 
ment of discouragement he sent two of his disciples to Jesus, 
and asked him, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look 
for another?" (Matt. 11:3). 

Jesus himself recognized the reasonableness of this great 
question, and showed his own solicitude about the answer 
which it was receiving. "Whom say the people that I am?" 
(Luke 9:8). "Whom say ye that I am?" (Matt. 16:15). 

On the early morning of a Jewish Sabbath Jesus and his 
twelve apostles set out from Bethany for Jerusalem. Their 
company was soon swelled by a great multitude, pouring into 
the city to celebrate the paschal feast. In their jubilation the 
crowd carpeted the roadway with their garments and scattered 
branches before him. As they drew near to the city of ten 
thousand sacred associations and hallowed memories, the 
multitude, waving the evergreen fronds of the palm, shouted, 
"Hosanna to the Son of David ! Blessed is he that cometh 
in the name of the Lord ! Hosanna in the highest !" "And 
when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, 
saying, Who is this?" (Matt. 21:10). 



44 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

This same great question beats at the heart and trembles 
upon the lip of the world to this day. Called the Messiah 
and Saviour by all the Christian world ; obviously the dynamic 
center of all modern history; clearly the most potent and 
potential factor in all civilization; the one who has created 
more change and stir in this earth than all other persons 
combined; his person unique, his teaching original, his con- 
duct exceptional, his character unblemished ; demanding the 
discipleship of men upon the pain of eternal sanctions : men 
will ask, men must ask, Who is He? 

If we admit his pretensions and submit to his demands 
upon any other grounds than those that are solid and rational, 
we show small respect for our own intelligence and a trifling 
regard for our own welfare. The Creator has given us our 
faculties to protect us against the charlatan and the pre- 
tender. In no matter are we under a more sacred obligation 
to use our best reason than in matters of religion. 

Jesus wrote no autobiography and left no memorandum 
concerning himself. It is not known that he ever wrote a 
single line with his own hand about anything. But eight of 
his contemporaries, associates and friends, after his death, 
wrote about him. Not many characters in the olden days 
had so many narrators of their story, so many to write ap- 
preciations of their persons and services. These eight tell 
the world substantially all that we know about Jesus of Naza- 
reth. If any other contemporaries wrote anything about him 
the world has not treasured these accounts and they have 
been lost. On the principle that it is wise to select the wit- 
nesses for important events and not leave them to be re- 
ported by the indiscriminate multitude, the Christian Church 
believes that these eight were divinely chosen and guided in 
the report which they made of Jesus, that the world might 
have an accurate account of the Messiah and Saviour and 
that the account might not have any extraneous matter in it 
and that it might not be confused by irresponsible reports 
made by other persons, more or less incompetent and preju- 
diced. The Christian Church believes that these eight' writ- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 45 

ers did not make, either of them or all of them, a complete 
and detailed biography of Jesus, but they set down so many 
things as were necessary to give the world a correct knowledge 
of him as the Messiah and Saviour. Hence we have no biogra- 
phy of Jesus, strictly speaking, but only such memoranda 
as are necessary for redemptive purposes. 

These eight writers about Jesus were Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James and Jude. They were all 
different types of men with various occupations. 

Matthew was a Galilean by birth, a Jew by religion, a 
publican in society, a tax-collector by occupation, an apostle 
by appointment. He was also called Levi, was a son of Al- 
phaeus, and resided at Capernaum. He wrote his account 
somewhere between A. D. 37 and 64 — that is within thirty-five 
years after the death of Jesus. 

Mark was the son of Mary the sister of Barnabas, a 
native of Jerusalem, his occupation unknown, a convert and 
assistant of the apostle Peter. He wrote his account A. D. 
63-70 — that is, within thirty-seven years of the death of Jesus. 

Luke was supposed to be a native of Antioch, and was a 
physician. He wrote his Gospel A. D. 50-58 — about twenty- 
five years after the death of Jesus, and the Acts about A. D. 63. 

John was probably a native of Bethsaida, a son of Zebe- 
dee, a well-to-do man, and a fisherman. He wrote his Gospel 
between A. D. 70-85, and his Revelation about A. D. 96; but 
the time of his three Epistles is altogether uncertain. 

Paul was a native of Tarsus, a Jew by race, a Roman by 
adoption, a Pharisee by sect, and highly educated in Jewish 
and Greek learning. He wrote fourteen Epistles concerning 
Jesus. They range in date from A. D. 52-70. 

Peter was a son of Jonas, a native of Bethsaida, a fisher- 
man by occupation, and surnamed a rock because of the firm- 
ness of his character. He wrote two Epistles about Tesus 
about A. D. 63. 

James wrote an Epistle about Jesus about A. D. 69. His 
exact identity is difficult to determine. There was James, 
the brother of John, and James, the brother of the Lord, and 



46 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

James the Just. It is quite commonly supposed that this 
latter is the author of this Epistle. 

Finally there is Jude, or Judas, called Thaddaeus and 
also Lebbaeus, who wrote an Epistle at an uncertain date, 
probably about A. D. 65. 

These eight men wrote altogether twenty-seven different 
booklets about Jesus. They are the only sources to which we 
can carry our question, Who was Jesus of Nazareth? 

It is true that the archaeologist and antiquarian occa- 
sionally report the discovery of some small fact confirmatory 
of the Christian Scriptures, and have not yet reported the 
finding of anything which is contradictory. Still our main 
dependence for all information about Jesus must be upon the 
writings of these eight men, for if we were to lay much stress 
upon the few corroborative facts, as soon as their force begins 
to be felt the principles of higher criticism would be applied 
to discredit them. 



I. The Historicalness of Jesus. 

Was Jesus an historical person? Or was he the product 
of the imagination of these eight writers and of the Christian 
community with which they were identified? This, of course, 
is the most primary question for the student who is asking 
himself, Who was Jesus? Until recent years there was no 
doubt within the Christian circle that Jesus of Nazareth was 
a real historic person. But since the attack of criticism upon 
the general trustworthiness of the Christian records, upon the 
miracles of the Old Testament and upon the miracles of Jesus 
recorded in the New Testament, they are beginning to tell 
us that no such person as Jesus of Nazareth ever actually 
lived in the world — that he is altogether a subjective illusion 
of the Christian mind, hypothecated as the object of pious 
faith to repose upon. Such a conclusion is supported by three 
considerations : 

1. By the silence of contemporary historians, notably 
Josephus and Philo. If there ever was such a person of such 



Christian Salvation — /to Doctrine and Experience 47 

marked characteristics, doing such wonderful things and stir- 
ring up the world in so pronounced a manner as is alleged by 
these eight writers, it is unreasonable to think that every 
other writer of the times would not have made reference to 
him. Christian apologists undertake to explain this silence 
of other contemporaries than the eight by saying that both 
the Jewish and Roman worlds had taken up such an attitude 
of hostility to Jesus and his friends, crucifying the one and 
persecuting the others, that it was dangerous for any con- 
temporary not bound to him by love and devotion to make 
any reference to him, lest they be construed as his friends 
and themselves become the objects of suspicion and perse- 
cution. When we recall this attitude of the world-powers of 
the day, it is nothing less than remarkable that as many as 
eight men undertook to tell the world his story, with love 
and sympathy, in the face of all possibilities. 

2. The second consideration, and the main one upon which 
criticism relies to discount the historicalness of Jesus, is the 
fact that these eight writers represent him as a miraculous 
person doing all sorts of miraculous deeds. Now their phil- 
osophy and their canons are certain that nothing supernatural 
nor miraculous can possibly be true; everything so represented 
is obviously fictitious and imaginary in some way. Hence 
Jesus cannot be real, as these eight represent him, because 
on a priori grounds there could not be such a person. The 
Christian apologist replies to this by saying that the premises 
of the criticism are not historical, but philosophical — a man 
must himself first be supernatural in order to affirm that noth- 
ing supernatural can be true. It is such a predication as re- 
quires an omniscient mind to make. 

3. The third consideration depended upon by criticism 
to invalidate the historicalness of Jesus is the pious one that 
the Christian does not need a historical and real person as 
the object of his faith and devotion. All true religion, we are 
told, is mere spirit, a mere posture of soul, and so it makes 
no difference whether the ideal has any corresponding ob- 
jective reality or not. A man can trust a subjective Saviour 



48 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

and lean upon, the Christ-idea as truly and as earnestly as 
upon a real historic Saviour, and at bottom it is the attitude 
and posture of the human spirit that counts. To this the 
Christian apologist replies that a faith which leans upon a 
fiction is just as certain of disappointment as a man who trusts 
himself to the shadow of a log across a stream, or as a mer- 
chant who trusts himself to the shadow of money to pay his 
accounts, or as a Christian Scientist who undertakes to think 
sickness and death out of existence. Men are real beings and 
it takes real objects to support them both physically and re- 
ligiously. Besides, the Christian apologist challenges the critic 
to explain how the Christian religion and the Christian Church 
which are certainly real today came to rise out of a fiction 
and an imagination. How could an imaginary Saviour origi- 
nate a real Church and a real religion? 

I think these and other things compel us to believe that 
the world has not been the victim of delusion and imagination 
for 2,000 years. We are, therefore, safe in giving as our first 
answer to the question, Who was Jesus? that he was a gen- 
uine historic person, real and not ideal, historic and not fic- 
titious. 

II. A Divine-Human Person. 

Then if historic, what was he? What sort of a person 
was Jesus? What do these eight writers say about him? It 
would require indefinite time to mention all the names and 
titles and characteristics and deeds and sayings and offices of 
this person as reported by these writers. Moreover, thou- 
sands of painstaking students have been collating and gen- 
eralizing the representations of these writers about Jesus. 
The great orthodox party in Christendom have long ago 
reached the conclusion that these writers portray him as a 
Divine-Human Person, and all down ;these Christian ages 
students and scholars have been testing and verifying this 
judgment. 

These writers tell us that Jesus was born of a virgin ; that 
he did such works as no other man ever did; that he spake 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 49 

as never a man spake; that he died and rose from the dead 
and ascended into heaven whence he had come; and that he 
lived and died absolutely without sinning in the least matter. 
If any one of these representations can be accepted, it proves 
that these men thought he was a Divine-Human Person. 
Then either he was as represented or their reports must be 
set aside as undependable for some reason. But we cannot 
set aside their reports on historical grounds, because there is 
not a scrap of contemporary writing in existence which con- 
tradicts the narrative and representation of these eight writ- 
ers. If, therefore, we dismiss their narrative and their con- 
temporaneous account of Jesus, we must do so for the a priori 
reason that nothing supernatural and miraculous can be true. 
But we cannot set aside these accounts on such philosophical 
grounds, because as many sound-minded men tell us the 
miraculous is possible as tell us that it is impossible. 

III. The Divinity of Jesus. 

There are those, however — the Unitarian, for example — 
who do not sweep away the account of Jesus given by these 
eight contemporaries, but who deny that they ever taught 
that he was divine in any true and proper sense. That Jesus 
was truly God, the orthodox Christologist gathers together 
and sums up what these eight writers say about him under 
the following heads : 

1. They give him the names and titles of God. 

2. They ascribe to him the attributes and qualities of God. 

3. They impute to him the words and sayings of God. 

4. They ascribe to him the works and doings of God. 

5. They demand for him the worship and reverence of 
God. 

If they call him God ; if they impute to him the attributes 
of God; if they put the words of God in his mouth; if they 
credit to him the works of God ; if they claimed that he is en- 
titled to the worship and reverence of God; how can we stay 



50 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

our minds from the conclusion that they at least thought he 
was God, and intended to so represent him? 

It is a long task to collate all that they say upon each of 
these heads. I can only give a few conspicuous illustrations 
of each of these propositions. 

i. God. 

In all their writings — Gospels, Acts and Epistles — these 
eight contemporaries call him God, and the Son of God, more 
than forty times. They do this often in a set, deliberate 
and purposeful way. For example : "The Word was God" 
(Jno. 1:1). "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" (Heb. 
1:8). "My Lord and my God" (Jno. 20:28). "God my Sa- 
viour" (Lk. 1:47). "Over all, God blessed for ever" (Rom. 
9:5). "God manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16). "The great 
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Tit. 2:13). "Emmanuel, 
God with us" (Matt. 1:23). "The Son of God" (Jno. 1:34). 
"The Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). "The only be- 
gotten of the Father" (Jno. 1:14). "My beloved Son" (Matt. 
17:5). "I am the Son of God" (Jno. 10:36). "Jesus Christ 
is the Son of God" (Acts 8:37). "Truly this was the Son of 
God" (Mark 15:39). And so on, forty times over, they re- 
peatedly call him God and the Son of God ,in various connec- 
tions and getting the words out of many different mouths. 

Jehovah. — But not only is Jesus so very often plainly 
called God, but he is also many times over called Jehovah, 
which is commonly regarded as the personal and proper name 
of the Deity. The Jews regarded this name as too holy and 
sacred to be even pronounced by human lips ; how much 
more abhorent to be bestowed upon any mere creature? 
"Lord" in the New Testament Greek is the synonym of "Jeho- 
vah" in the Old Testament Hebrew. Any casual reader knows 
that this name is applied to Jesus a great many times in the 
writings of the eight New Testament reporters. Here are a 
few examples. "Lord, is it I" (Matt 26:22). "Lord of the 
Sabbath" (Mark 2:28). "The Lord is risen indeed" (Lk. 24: 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 51 

34). "Ye call me Master and Lord; and ye say well; for so 
I am " (Jno. 13:13). "Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all" (Acts 
10:36). "Who art thou, Lord?" (Acts 26:15). "The same 
Lord over all" (Rom. 10:12). "Lord of lords and King of 
kings" (1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 17:14). "Lord of dead and living" 
(Rom. 14:9). "Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2:8). "These things 
saith Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him" (Jno. 
12:41). Now what did Isaiah say of him? We look back 
into the prophecy and read, "I saw also the Lord (Jehovah), 
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up" (Isa. 6:1). When 
the New Testament is translated into Hebrew, the word Lord 
is translated by Jehovah, and when the Old Testament was 
translated into Greek by the Seventy, making the Septuagint 
version, the word Jehovah was turned into Lord. 

So we find both the names for the Deity — Elohim (God) 
and Jehovah in the Hebrew, and Theos (God) and Kudos 
(Lord) in the Greek — applied many times over to Jesus by 
the eight New Testament writers. 

2. Divine Attributes. 

But nothing is commoner than for names to be used in 
a metaphorical and accommodated sense. Even the Scrip- 
tures sometimes so use the names of God. We know that 
the names of persons are often given to things. May not the 
divine names of Jesus be given to him in some lesser and 
borrowed sense? So we must go behind the names and in- 
quire if the characteristics of God arel ascribed to Jesus as 
well as the names of God. Are the qualities connoted by the 
names also predicated of Jesus? The attributes of a thing 
tell us what the thing is, regardless of the name by which it 
may be called. Now these contemporary writers ascribed to 
Jesus the attributes of God as well as the names and titles of 
God. 

I cannot begin to enumerate these divine perfections im- 
puted to Jesus. Among them are life — "In him was life" 
(Jno. 1:4); "I am.... the life" (Jno. 14:6); self-existence — 



52 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

"Have life in himself" ( Jno. 5 '.26) ; immutability — "Jesus 
Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever" (Heb. 13:8) ; 
"Before Abraham was I am" (Jno. 8:58) ; truth — "I am. . . . the 
truth" (Jno. 14:6); "He that is true" (Rev. 3:7); holiness — 
"That which is to be born of thee shall be called holy, the Son 
of God" (Lk. 1:33), "Thou art the holy one of God" (Jno. 
6 :69) ; eternity — "In the beginning was the Word ; and the 
Word was with God" (Jno. 1:1), "He is before all things" 
(Col. 1:17)1 "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
end" (Rev. 21 :6) ; omnipresence — "The fullness of him that 
filleth all in all" (Eph. 1 123) ; omniscience — " Thou knowest 
all things" (Jno. 16:30) almightiness — "The Lord God, which 
is and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" 
(Rev. 1:8). 

And so I might go on almost indefinitely picking out the 
phrases here and there which predicate the characters and 
qualities of God, of Jesus. It is not so much the individual 
statement which impresses us, as the total picture of his 
character which impresses us, that the writers are making 
divine assertions and allegations concerning him. 

3. Divine Works 

But I grant that both these names and predications may 
be artfully explained away so as not to shut us up to the ne- 
cessity of believing that these writers represented Jesus as 
truly divine. The case, however, does not rest here. These 
writers not only call him God, and ascribe to him the attri- 
butes of God, but they impute to him the works of God. The 
great works of the Deity are classified by students as four — 
Creation, Providence, Miracles, Redemption. Jesus is said to 
have done all these things. 

Creation. — "All things were made by him, and without 
him was not anything made that was made" (Jno! 1 13). 
"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and 
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be 
thrones, or dominions or principalities, or powers : all things 
were created by him, and for him" (Col. 1 :i6). 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 53 

Providence. — "He is before all things, and by him all 
things consist" (Col. 1:17). "Upholding all things by the 
word of his power" (Heb. 1 13). 

Miracles. — Of these special works, Jesus is reported to 
have wrought thirty-five. He worked them in his own name 
and by his own power. They are : 

Water turned into wine. 

Nobleman's son healed. 

Draught of fishes (first). 

Cure of demoniac in the synagogue. 

Healing of Peter's wife's mother and others. 

Cleansing a leper. 

Stilling a storm. 

Legion of demons cast out. 

Woman with issue of blood healed. 

Daughter of Jairus raised to life. 

Two blind men given sight. 

Dumb demoniac cured. 

Paralytic healed. 

Impotent man at Bethesda healed. 

Withered hand cured. 

Centurion's servant healed. 

Widow's son at Nain raised. 

Blind and dumb demoniac cured. 

Feeding 5000. 

Jesus walking on the sea. 

Daughter of the Syrophoenician woman healed. 

A deaf and dumb man cured. 

Feeding the 4000. 

Blind man at Bethesda gradually restored. 

Curing a demoniac child. 

Tax coin found in the fish's mouth. 

Man born blind given sight. 

An infirm woman restored. 

A man with dropsy cured. 

Ten lepers cleansed. 



54 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Blind Bartimaeus given sight. 
Resurrection of Lazarus. 
Barren fig-tree cured. 
Ear of Malthus restored. 
Draught of fishes (second). 

These are the miracles of which a detailed account is 
given. There are allusions to a great many more in the Gos- 
pels. This makes the impression upon the reader that the 
writers regarded Jesus as a miracle-worker, one who could do 
a supernatural act at his pleasure. 

Redemption. — But perhaps the divinest of all works is 
that of Redemption. Who can forgive an offense but the per- 
son against whom it has been committed? It would be ab- 
surd and silly for me to assume to pardon an insult which has 
been given to you. But Jesus assumed the prerogative of for- 
giving offenses committed against God. He said to the para- 
lytic, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." The Jews said it was 
blasphemy, "for none can forgive sin but God only." Jesus 
admitted the reasoning, but retorted, "That ye may know that 
the Son of Man hath power to forgive sins, he saith to the sick 
of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go to thine house." 
And he did it. (Matt. 9). 

4. Divine Worship. 

These eight contemporaries of Jesus not only gave him 
the names of God ; and the attributes of God ; and ascribed to 
him the works of God ; but they also demanded for him the 
worship of God. When John was about to fall down and 
worship the apocalyptic angel, the angel said to him, "Do it 
not; worship God." These Scriptures everywhere forbid any 
creature to worship any being but God only. When God 
brought his First Begotten into the world, he said, "Let all 
the angels of God worship him" (Heb. 1:6)). Thomas cried 
out, "My Lord and my God" and he did not rebuke him 
(Jno. 20:28). He said it was right and proper "that all men 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 55 

should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He 
that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which sent 
him" (Jno. 5:23). Paul said that at "the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
and things under the earth ; and that every tongue should con- 
fess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father" 
(Phil. 2:10). And we are told that "ten thousand times ten 
thousand, and thousands of thousands," in heaven cry, "Wor- 
thy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches 
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing" 
(Rev. 5:12). And in baptism and benediction the name of 
Jesus is associated co-ordinately and co-equally with that of 
the Father and the Spirit. 

What is the total impression of all this upon the reader's 
mind? What picture of the person is thus made to rise up 
before us? These contemporaries called him God, and gave 
him all the titles which they give the Deity. They ascribed 
to him all the attributes and perfections of God which the 
Scriptures give to the Deity. They credit him with all the 
works which the Bible represents God as performing. They 
call for the same honor and respect and worship for him 
which they demand for the Deity. They say he is God; they 
give him the attributes of God ; they ascribe to him the works 
of God; they demand for him the worship of God. We are 
bound to believe that they thought he was God, or that they 
tried to represent him as God. To them he was divine in 
every true and proper sense. They may have been mistaken, 
but this is certainly the way in which they represented him. 

If they thought he was born of a virgin — that he entered 
the world in this supernatural and miraculous manner. If 
they thought he rilled all the interim of his earthly life with 
miraculous deeds and words and actions. If they thought he 
died and rose from the dead, and that too by his own power. 
If they thought he laid down his life, and that he took it again. 
If they thought he ascended into heaven after rising from the 
dead. If they thought he would come again into this world 
at some future time. If they set down any or all of these 



56 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

things in their account of him, must we not believe that they 
believed that he was veritably divine — a truly supernatural 
person? If we believe anything which they believed, must 
we not also believe that Jesus was supernatural and divine- 
very God in deed and truth? 

There is another impressive way to state the argument 
for the divinity of Jesus. 

He knew the unknowable : the human heart and all thing? 
He loved the unlovable : the human sinner. 
He did the impossible : died and rose again. 
He was the impossible : a sinless character. 

If any of these predictions are true, Jesus was a super- 
human, a supernatural person. These contemporary writers 
so represented him. They therefore must have believed that 
he was superhuman and supernatural. They may have been 
lying outright. They may have been pitifully deceived. They 
may have wrought themselves up into this wildness of belief. 
They may have come by it any way you can imagine, or in 
some mode you cannot even dream of. But it is utterly im- 
possible for the reader not to see and feel that they did so set 
him forth in the account which they gave of him to the world. 
We are shut up to the alternative of rejecting what they say 
about him, the representation they make of him, in some 
mode or upon some ground, or to accepting the doctrine of 
his true and genuine divinity. If Josephus and Philo and 
other contemporaries than the eight had made the same repre- 
sentations about him, their record would have been in the 
same condition as that of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 
Paul and others, who did have the courage and temerity and 
devotion to set down an account of him. If we cannot believe 
eight, neither could we believe the other two. If we can ex- 
plain away what eight said, we could explain away what ten 
said about him. A record made by contemporaries, and 
guarded down the ages, and defended with blood and treasure, 
is all the record we have. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 57 



IV. The Humanity of Jesus. 

These eight contemporary writers were just as emphatic 
in representing Jesus as genuinely human. They report that 
as he called himself the Son of God, so he called himself the 
Son of Man. 

1. They give him human names and titles. 

2. They impute to him human attributes and qualities. 

3. They ascribe to him human words and works. 

4. They demand for him human reverence and respect. 

They portray him as one who was born like a man ; lived 
like a man ; acted like a man ; hungered and thirsted like a 
man; suffered and died like a man. They are just as clear in 
representing him as a man as they are in setting him forth 
as divine. They said not one syllable that denied his true 
humanity, or evaporated it away in some mystical manner. 
To them he had a human body and a reasonable soul. To 
them he had a true physical form and all the faculties and 
powers of a genuine man. There are those who think his 
contemporaries were mistaken in representing him as a man, 
even as there are those who think they were somehow mis- 
taken in representing him as God. Maybe so. But the record 
which they left behind them, the things which they wrote 
about him unmistakably set him forth as genuinely human. 
The one school does just what the other does. They both 
decline to accept the face meaning of the story as told by the 
eight contemporaries. The Unitarian sets it aside in one 
direction; the Nestorian sets it aside in the other direction. 

But the portrait drawn by the eight contemporaries, the 
account which they have set down about Jesus, whatever it 
may be worth, is that of a Divine-Human Person — one who 
was both God and Man, in two distinct natures but one Per- 
son. You may say it is all very unnatural. And so it is ; there 
is nothing like him in the annals of time or records of eternity 
— in the archives of history or in the gallery of fiction. You 
may say it is all very inscrutable. And so it is ; no man com- 



58 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

prehends the union of his own body and soul — matter and 
spirit in his own personal make-up — much less can he com- 
prehend the union of God and Man in the Person of Jesus 
Christ. But whatever a man may think about it, whoever 
puts together what these eight contemporary writers say 
about Jesus has put together the concept of a Divine-Human 
Person. 

Conclusion. 

I come now to the conclusion of this discussion. Every 
essential fact in the Christian Religion depends upon the trust- 
worthiness of the writings of eight of his contemporaries. If 
they are not dependable, the historic basis of our faith is 
swept away. 

But I remind you of Greenleaf's four rules of docu- 
mentary evidence. That any writing (1) which is more than 
thirty years old, (2) that has been in proper custody, (3) that 
is without suspicious appearance, and (4) that is supported by 
corroborative evidence — that any writing that is thus condi- 
tioned, no jury could respect its oath, no lawyer his intelli- 
gence, and no judge his conscience, and reject. The applica- 
tion of these canons of historical evidence to the writings of 
the eighth contemporaries of Jesus, show them to be his- 
torical. 

If historical and genuine, both Testaments set forth a 
Saviour — the Old Testament a Messiah, and the New Testa- 
ment, Christ. It is this person as a Saviour that they histori- 
cally set forth. 

If historical and genuine, they report a class of facts 

miracles — which, if accepted as facts, prove the Scriptures to 
be the divine Word of God. 

If historical and genuine, Christ himself commits him- 
self to the Scriptures, and represents them as the Word of 
God. 

If historical and genuine, they set forth Christ as a 
Divine-Human Person, whose word and work are supernatu- 
rally weighty and dependable. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Messiah 

The story of Christ, as told in the Christian Scriptures, is 
the most unique narrative in all the literature of the world. 
It was told before he was born and re-told after he was dead. 
It was told in the future tense and then it was told in the past 
tense. It was first a Prophecy, and then it was a History. 
The prophecy was written in the Hebrew language, and the 
history was written in the Greek tongue. The subject of the 
prophetical sketch was called the Messiah, and the subject of 
the historical sketch was called Christ. These two names are 
synonyms in different languages. 

It is this feature which renders the story of our Lord, as 
a story, so singular and original. The biographical materials 
are first given in prophetical form in the Old Testament and 
then given in historical form in the New Testament. These 
two accounts stand over against each other, and verify each 
other. There is no other character in all the world's catalogue 
of names whose story is thus told. It suggests the importance 
and uniqueness of the subject and renders the identification 
of the person more certain than any other in human annals. 

This fact not only makes the subject of this twin biogra- 
phy so prominent and exceptional, but it also shows a special 
providential care to certify to the world the material facts of 
this story. The prophetical account attests the facts of the 
historical narrative and the historical narrative also supports 
the prophetical description. As men set props opposite to 
brace the post, so the Old Testament and the New Testa- 
ment — prophecy and history — lean towards each other to 
sustain the story of the Saviour of the world. 

To show that the Scriptures do teach the true and proper 
Divinity of Christ, I shall (i) present the biographical facts 
of the Messiah as they are outlined in the Old Testament and 
(2) the biographical facts of Christ as they are reported in the 



60 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

New Testament. We may look first upon this picture, and 
then upon that — upon the portrait which hangs in the gallery 
of Prophecy, and then upon the portrait which hangs in the 
gallery of History — and draw our inferences from the com- 
parison. 

I am assuming the genuineness and authenticity and cred- 
ibility of both Testaments. If these sources are untrust- 
worthy, then the whole subject dwindles to one of mere 
curiosity and speculation — a mere effort to delineate the 
character of a creation of legendary and romantic literature 
of an ancient day. I have no such literary interest in the 
topic. 

I. The Humanity of the Messiah. 

It defies the wit of man to deny that some Person looks 
out of the pages of the Old Testament as a face looks out of 
a window. It is equally impossible for man to read from 
Genesis to Malachi and not see that this Person is future, 
and yet to come, down to the close of the Old Testament 
canon. It is equally impossible for any one to read this litera- 
ture and not see that this Prophetical Person came to be 
known as the Messiah. I shall continually refer to him by 
that name instead of employing longer descriptive phrases. 
And no man can read these ancient books of Israel without 
seeing that the Messiah is outlined both as Man and as God 
and at the end of the Old Testament Revelation these two 
lines of description converge upon one and the same Person 
and indentify the Messiah as a divine-human Person. 

I shall first of all outline the salient things which are 
said about the Messiah as a Man. 

i. Seed of the Woman. — Going back to earliest times, 
the first star that was hung in the firmament of a sinful and 
fallen world was the prophecy that the Seed of the Woman 
should bruise the Serpent's head (Gen. 3:15). Such a -promise 
created a great expectation. It was the birth-day of hope for 
those offenders who had been expelled from Eden. It as- 
signed to the Coming One the task of breaking the head of 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 61 

the Tempter who had seduced our first parents from their 
fidelity to God. It proclaimed the truth that the Messiah was 
to be a member of the human race. 

2. Seed of Abraham. — Later in patriarchal history, this 
Deliverer is more closely defined as the Seed of Abraham 
(Gen. 17:/). This prediction informs us that the Messiah is 
to be of Abrahamic lineage and instructs us to look for him 
among the descendants of this particular patriarch. 

3. Seed of Isaac. — But Abraham had more sons than one, 
and was the progenitor of Ishmaelites, and Israelites, and 
Midianites. So we are told that the coming Messiah is to be 
derived from Isaac, the son of promise (Gen. 21 :i2). So as 
the race widens and multiplies, the prophecy is careful to 
define and restrict the Messianic line of descent. 

4. Seed of Jacob. — Isaac, however, had two sons, Esau 
and Jacob. But the prophecy does not leave us to surmise 
and speculation, but now defines the Messiah as the Seed of 
Jacob (Gen. 35:12). 

5. Seed of Judah. — But Jacob had twelve sons, who be- 
came the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel. From 
these to which shall we look for the expected Messiah? The 
royal tribe of Judah is chosen, and the hope of the world is 
centered in this group (Gen. 49:10). Thus is prophecy faith- 
fully guiding the expectation and guarding the hope of the 
world. 

6. Seed of David. — But there are many families in Judah, 
and the house of David is specified as the one in which the 
predicted Messiah shall be born (1 Kings 8:25; Ps. 132:11). 

7. Seed of the Virgin. — But the race is multiplying too 
rapidly and the possible sources of the Messiah are becoming 
too numerous. Unless some more economical method can be 
discovered, all prophecy will become scarcely more than a 
genealogical table of the Messiah. There are a great many 
other important things which must be said about him besides 
his lineage. So prophecy gives us one final omnibus descrip- 



62 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

tion of the Messiah which identifies him for all times and gen- 
erations : "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, 
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call 
his name Immanuel" (Isa. 7:14). Then, as if to "make assur- 
ance doubly sure," the prophecy specifies the place where this 
virgin is to bring forth the Messianic Child : "But thou, Beth- 
lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands 
of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is 
to be ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of 
old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2). 

Nothing more can be said. Nothing more needs to be 
said. The prophecy has defined his mother to be a virgin and 
named the place where the Mesiah is to be born. The world 
can only wait until a; virgin bears a child in Bethlehem of 
Judah. This completely safeguards the promise and protects 
an expectant world from deception and mistake. The place 
must be Bethlehem in Judah. His mother must be a virgin, 
who can be impregnated only by supernatural power. The 
virgin must belong to the house of David, to the tribe of 
Judah, to the line of Jacob, to the lineage of Isaac, to the 
family of Abraham, to the daughters of Eve. Could the Mes- 
sianic expectation have been more carefully guarded? Could 
the eye of mankind have been more surely directed? Could the 
possibility of mistake have been more nearly reduced to zero? 
Was there one chance in a million that the world, with such 
minute instructions, could be the victim of mistaken identity? 

The Seed of the Woman must be the Seed of Abraham; 
the Seed of Isaac ; the Seed of Jacob ; the Seed of Judah ; the 
Seed of David ; the Seed of the Virgin ; in Bethlehem of Judah ! 
As time moved on and generations came and went, the index 
finger of prophecy continued to point out the lineage of the 
Messiah until it rested steady and unmoving upon the virgin 
in Bethlehem ! And this for 4000 years before the star did 
stand over Bethlehem and the angels celebrated the -birth of 
the Child of the Virgin ! The prediction was a miracle and 
demonstrates that the Old Testament writers were super- 
naturally guided in the way in which they picked out the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 63 

lineage and descent of the Messiah from among all the pos- 
sible origins which he might have had during this long period 
of time. 

II. The Divinity of the Messiah. 

There is, however, another line of prophetic description 
which gives us an entirely different conception of the Messiah. 
It will show us that he was to be 1 not only human but divine 
also. 

Angel of Jehovah. — In the patriarchal dispensation he is 
set forth as the Angel of Jehovah. When Abraham was about 
to sacrifice Isaac, it was the Angel of the Lord who arrested 
him, and represented himself as the Lord or Jehovah ( Gen. 
22:15). Again it was the Angel of the Lord who spake to 
Jacob at Bethel, and said to him, "I am the God of Bethel" 
(Gen. 31:11, 13). It was the Angel of theLord who spake to 
poor outcast Hagar, and "she called the name of the Lord 
that spake to her, Thou God seest me" (Gen. 16:9, 13), and 
he received the title without dissent. Jacob in pronouncing 

his farewell benediction upon his sons, spoke of "the God 

the Angel which redeemed me from the evil" (Gen. 48:15, 16). 
When Moses was commissioned in the desert to deliver Israel 
from Egyptian bondage, it was the "Angel of the Lord" who 
appeared unto him in the burning bush, and "God called to 
him out of the midst of the bush" (Ex. 3:2-7). During the 
period of the Judges it was the Angel of the Lord who repeat- 
edly appeared and devised deliverance for his pople (Judges 
13). And so the story goes on. This Angel appears from 
time to time, and on sundry occasions, in subsequent Old 
Testament story, until we come to Malachi, the last of the 
Old Testament prophets, who quotes God as saying, "I will 

send my Messenger (Angel) the Lord (Jehovah) whom 

ye seek" (Mai. 3:1). 

Who was this Angel who so frequently appeared in 
Israel's history? He cannot be Jehovah himself, because he 
is always designated as the Angel or Messenger of Jehovah, 



64 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

and one cannot be properly described as the angel or mes- 
senger of himself. The very form of the descriptive phrase- 
ology excludes the idea of identity. And besides this impro- 
priety of speech, the Angel and Jehovah are sometimes pre- 
sented in the same theophany in such connections and actions 
as show that they were distinct persons. 

Neither can this Angel be a created angel, because he is 
frequently called God, and Jehovah, and Lord, which titles 
cannot be applied to any man or angel. Moreover, some of the 
things which this Angel does, surpass the powers of a created 
angel or man. 

Expositors have prevailingly looked upon this Angel as 
the Messiah, making pre-incarnate manifestations of himself 
in the interest of his people. If there is any truth in this view, 
the Messiah, as the Angel of the Lord, must be divine, not 
only because he is specifically and directly called God, but 
also to be able to make such pre-manifestations of himself. 

Types. — Moreover, I think no one can read the Old Testa- 
ment literature without feeling that it is typical in all that it 
sets forth ; that it was not written for its own sake but always 
as promissory of something to come. In all its details, as 
well in its broad outlines, it was futuristic and prefatory. 

(1) The Prophet in Israel — the person who was the 
medium of the divine communication under the old economy — 
was but a type of a Prophet to come, who would not only be 
the medium of the divine revelation but the very impersona- 
tion of that Revelation — the Wisdom, the Truth, the Mind of 
God (Deut. 18:15, 18). 

(2) The priest in Israel, who officiated at the altar and 
made sacrifices for sin according to the ritual, was but a type 
of the great High Priest to come, who would himself be at 
once the Priest and the Victim, offering himself as a sacrifice 
for sin ( 1 Sam. 2 135 ; Ps. 1 10 4 ; Ps. 40 :6) . 

(3) The king in Israel, who wore the crown and admin- 
istered the government, was supremely significant only as he 
shadowed forth another King, who would in the future take 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 65 

the throne of David and reign for ever (Ps. 2:6; Ps. 110:1; 
Isa. 9:7; Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:24; Dan. 7:13; etc.). 

All such consistent and persistent representations com- 
pelled God's ancient people to look out, and look forward, for 
a Messiah who would be at once the Revealer and Redeemer 
and Ruler of the Church of God — one who would be Prophet, 
Priest and King. As a matter of fact, they allowed the royal 
character of the Messiah to bulk so large in their vision and 
to so overshadow his other predicted offices as to pervert their 
hope into the expectation of an earthly King who would give 
world-wide dominion to literal Israel and universal sover- 
eignty to literal Jerusalem. After the voice of prophecy had 
ceased to remind the people by reiterated description of the 
true nature of the Messiah their faith waned, their patience 
gave way and their eye lost sight of the spiritual and typical 
character of their literature, and their conception of the Mes- 
siah dwindled to a mere earthly potentate. 

Divinity of Messiah. — The canon of Old Testament 
Scripture was closed with Malachi and then God left Israel 
for 400 years to rest by faith upon what had been revealed 
and promised concerning the Messiah. It was a period in 
which faith underwent trial and discipline. But as it was in 
the story of the wilderness, so was it in the interval between 
the Testaments — faith did not stand the strain, and the glow- 
ing hope of prophecy faded into the dream of an earthly 
monarchy. Before, however, the voice of prophecy had be- 
come silent, the psalmist had addressed the Messiah in these 
words, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" (Ps. 45:6). 
And Isaiah had written it upon the face of the sky, "Unto us 
a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government 
shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Won- 
derful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, 
The Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). And Jeremiah had said 
concerning this Messiah, "This is his name whereby he shall 
be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jer. 
23 :6) . And Ezekiel had put these words into the mouth of 
the Messianic Shepherd, "I the Lord will be their God" (Ezek. 



66 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

34:24). With many other glowing descriptions of the divinity 
of the Messiah did the prophets star the pages of Israel's 
hope. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and 
shall call his name Immanuel (God-with-us)" (Isa. 7:14). 

Sumtmary. — To sum up the case : When we follow out 
one line of the prophetic description, the Messiah is seen to 
be genuinely human. He is introduced at the beginning as 
"The Seed of the Woman" and at the end of the prophetic 
story he is "The Child of the Virgin/' He is set forth, there- 
fore, as genuinely human. When, however, we trace the other 
line of prophetical description, this Messiah is introduced as 
the "Angel of Jehovah." And when the prophetical account 
comes to its end, he is called "The Mighty God." So he is 
genuinely divine. When, however, the prophecy gives him a 
name which combines both these characters, the Messiah is 
called "Immanuel," which means God-with-us. We must con- 
clude, therefore, that the Messiah of biblical prophecy is a 
divine-human Person. 



III. Jesus The Messiah. 

But was Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah that was pre- 
dicted? Can we identify, beyond reasonable doubt, the his- 
toric Christ and the prophetic Messiah? Is there any solid 
ground for the Jewish contention? Is it perfectly certain 
that the Christian Church has made no blunder upon this im- 
portant point? 

Genealogy. — The simplest and most satisfactory way of 
identifying any particular person in this world is to appeal 
to his genealogical record. If it were the inheritance of 
valuable property that was at stake, or the hereditary rights 
of the claimant to a throne that is in issue, the family history 
of the claimant, if complete and unimpeached, would go a 
long way towards settling the matter. Records are made 
of marriages and births and deaths to minify such confusions 
and prevent such disputes. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 67 

Now Jesus of Nazareth has a complete and unclouded 
lineage, running back to the beginning of the race. This was 
the primary purpose of those genealogical lists which we find 
set down, from time to time, in the pages of sacred Scrip- 
ture — to preserve and show the ancestral history of the claim- 
ant to the Messianic office whenever he should arise and as- 
sert himself among the children of men. There is but one 
person in human history who could have such a lineage : if a 
particular person has that particular record, all others are 
excluded and his identity is certified beyond every reasonable 
doubt. 

He was born in Bethlehem. He was born of a Virgin. 
Mary was the only virgin in that town who gave birth to a 
child and he was the only child in that village who was so 
born. This starts us according to the Messianic prophecy, 
because the prophecy said to the world, "Behold, a virgin 
shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Im- 
manuel" (Isa. 7:14), and the record of the birth of Jesus is 
that he was born in Bethlehem of the virgin Mary, and that 
he was named Immanuel (Mat. 1 :i8). And the star stood still, 
and the magi wondered, and the angels burst forth from the 
gallery of the skies ! Then we have "The book of the genera- 
tion of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" 
(Mat. 1 :i). So the Child of Mary of Bethlehem is the Child 
of the Virgin of Prophecy; the Child of the house of David; 
the Child of the tribe of Judah ; the Child of Jacob ; the Child 
of Isaac; the Child of Abraham; the Child or Seed of the 
Woman. The pedigree is complete and the identification is 
perfect. 

The only way the Messiahship of Jesus can be questioned 
is by impeaching the family record of the Son of Mary. Many 
are the attempts to assail that record and invalidate it, for it 
is clear that if its correctness be once admitted it proves Jesus 
divine and the Messiah of all prophecy and promise. 

The Evangelists give two genealogies of Jesus — one by 
Matthew and the other by Luke. These two lists vary in 



68 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

several particulars, and the critics make a point against their 
accuracy on this account. 

(i) The first variation is in the spelling of the names as 
given in the Old Testament and repeated in the New Testa- 
ment. For example, "Uzziah" in the Old is "Ozias" 
in the New. This is explained by remembering two things : 
(i) that at the time of the writing of the New Testament 
the Hebrew tongue had changed into the Aramaic dialect, 
even as it has changed today into the "Yiddish," and (2) that 
the New Testament was written in Greek and that names 
vary when they are translated from one language into another. 

(2) The second variation is in the antithetical method of 
Matthew and Luke in making up their respective lists of 
names. Matthew begins with Abraham, and descends from 
father to son, through David, to Jesus. Luke, on the other 
hand, begins with Jesus, and ascends from son to father, 
through David, until he reaches Adam. These opposite ways 
of making up the genealogy would tend to check each other 
and insure greater accuracy. 

(3) A third variation is found in the fact that Matthew 
mentions males only while Luke mentions three females in 
the ancestry of Jesus. This fact naturally suggests that the 
two evangelists are tracing different lines of descent. 

(4) A fourth variation is found in the fact that there are 
more names in the list of Luke than there are in the list of 
Matthew. In Matthew Jesus is the 60th name from Abraham, 
while in Luke his is the 76th name from Adam. Such a differ- 
ence as this would again suggest that the two chroniclers 
had traced the lineage of Jesus along different ancestral lines, 
for we well know that no man's family history runs back 
into the past along a single ancestral line. 

(5) But the most serious discrepancy between these two 
family records of Jesus is the fact that all the names given 
by Matthew from David down are totally different from the 
names given by Luke. Either one or the other is incorrect, 
or Matthew is tracing the lineage of Jesus through Joseph, 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 69 

the husband of Mary, while Luke is tracing his lineage 
through Mary, the mother of Jesus. 

Matthew says the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, 
was Jacob. Luke, on the other hand, says he was the son of 
Heli. How can the same man be the son of two different 
men? Only on the supposition that he is the born son of one 
and the law son of the other. Now Matthew says that "J ac °D 
begat Joseph," which can only mean that Joseph was the 
natural, born son of Jacob. Luke, on the other hand, says 
simply, "J ose P n tne son °^ Heli," and this would be correct 
if Joseph was the son-in-law of Heli. It can be true upon no 
other supposition. Hence, while the genealogy does not 
explicitly assert it, we are shut up to inferring that Mary, 
the mother of Jesus, was the daughter of Heli, and Joseph, the 
husband of Mary, was the son-in-law of Heli. This is the 
historic explanation of conservative commentators. It is per- 
fectly reasonable and completely explains the matter. 

Then Matthew, taking the Old Testament lists and begin- 
ning with Abraham, follows the line of descent from father 
to son, through David, until he reaches Joseph, the husband 
of Mary, the mother of Jesus. He thus gives us the lineage 
of Joseph, who stood to Jesus in loco patris — in law and public 
opinion as the father of Jesus. Luke, on the other hand, be- 
gins with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and by inference the 
daughter of Heli, and traces the blood ascent of Jesus up 
through his natural and real ancestors through David and 
Abraham and on back to Adam. It is, therefore, a noteworthy 
fact that, whether the lineage of Jesus be traced legally 
through Joseph or literally through Mary, both lines go back 
through David and Jacob and Isaac and Abraham to Adam 
and Eve, and thus fulfill, to the letter and syllable, the Mes- 
sianic description of human parentage. 

Christ. — But a matter so fundamental to the Christian 
faith is not left to depend alone upon his genealogy, however 
perfect and complete that may be. Providence foresaw that 
the very genealogy would be questioned by the world, and 



yo Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

so the family register is supported by many direct and asser- 
tive statements that Jesus of Nazareth was the real and true 
Messiah. "Christ" in the Greek is the synonym for "Messiah" 
in the Hebrew, and our New Testament Scriptures call Jesus 
of Nazareth Christ more than 500 times from the beginning 
to the end of the New Testament canon. And this designation 
is in every one of the entire 27 books of the New Testament. 
Consequently, if the authenticity and historicalness and trust- 
worthiness of any one of these New Testament writings be 
admitted, that single genuine writing tells us that he was 
the Messiah. We cannot, therefore, void Jesus' claim to the 
Messiahship by setting aside any one particular portion of the 
New Testament; we shall have to impeach and destroy the 
historicity of every part of it. The early disciples began by 
saying, "We have found the Messiah, which is, being inter- 
preted, the Christ" (Jno. 1 141), and they adhered to that story 
till the last contemporary voice was hushed in death. The 
identification of Jesus and the Messiah is as complete as 
apostle and disciple could make it by repeated and persistent 
assertion. 

But there are some who find it very hard to accept the 
evidence of any records, or the testimony of any persons, 
upon a question so serious as the Messiahship of Jesus; yet 
they profess such reverence and respect for the intelligence 
and character of Christ himself that they can never quite 
deny anything for which he vouches. When John the Baptist, 
a forerunner of Jesus, a kinsman according to the flesh and a 
man whom Christ greatly admired, was in Herod's prison, 
awaiting his own execution, he sent two of his disciples to 
Christ, and asked him the categorical question, "Art thou he 
that should come, or do we look for another" (Matt. 11:3), 
In reply, Jesus said to them, " Go and show John again those 
things which ye do hear and see." The things which they 
had seen and heard were many miracles, which were calcu- 
lated to confirm the faith of the depressed prisoner. It was 
the strongest sort of an affirmative answer. When the woman 
of Samaria said to him, "I know that Messias cometh, which 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience Ji 

is called Christ ; when he is come, he will tell us all things ;" 
Jesus saith unto her "I that speak unto thee am he" (Jno. 4: 
25, 26). When the Jews said to him, ''How long dost thou 
make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ (Messiah), tell us 
plainly;" Jesus answered them, "I told you, and ye believed 
not" (Jno. 10:24, 25). He thus said to them, "If you cannot 
take my word for it, then you will have to judge me by my 
works and reach your own conclusion". 

On one occasion our Lord had an extended dispute with 
the Jews in the treasury of the temple. He said to them, "If 
ye believe not that I am he (the Messiah), ye shall die in your 
sins" (Jno. 8 '.24). By this he told them that faith in a Messiah 
yet to come would not be effective; that he was that Messiah, 
and that their faith must rest upon himself, Jesus of Nazareth, 
in order to save their souls from death. Still the Jews pressed 
their question upon him, "Who art thou?" And again he 
answered, 'Even the same that I said to you from the begin- 
ning" (Jno. 8:25). Finally he said to them, "When ye have 
lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he" 
(Jno. 8:28). Now that they did lift him up, is it too daring for 
one who believes his words to say that before the end of all 
things, before Messiah closes his dealings with the Jews, they 
will yet see that he is in deed and in truth the Messiah which 
was to have come and that in rejecting him they have crucified 
the very Lord of all life? It looks like this people is segre- 
gated by the providence of God among all the nations of the 
earth, and held unmixed and unmerged, that they may yet 
see and confess that he was the Christ and the Messiah. 

The very accusation which was brought against him and 
which led to his crucifixion was that he claimed to be the 
Messiah. When he was on his last trial, the chief priests and 
the scribes led him into their council chamber and asked him, 
"Art thou the Christ (the Messiah)? tell us." And he said 
unto them, "If I tell you, ye will not believe" (Luke 22:67). 
He means to say, "I have told you over and over again, and 
you will not believe; why should I keep on wasting breath 



*]2, Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

in asserting it? Hereafter you will see the Son of man on the 
right hand of the power of God, and then you will be con- 
vinced." After his resurrection and prior to his ascension 
he said to his disciples, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe 
all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ (the 
Messiah) to have suffered these things, and to enter into his 
glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he ex- 
pounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning 
himself" (Luke 24:25-27). Finally John closed the whole 
gospel narrative with these words, "These are written, that 
ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah), the 
Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through 
his name" (Jno. 20:31). 

Jews. — Why did not the Jews admit the Messiahship of 
Jesus if his claims were as clear as they seem to be? This 
question is often propounded to the followers of Christ and 
it is thought by many to seriously cripple the confidence of 
the Christian Church in him. There is, however, an explana- 
tion which is perfectly rational and adequately accounts for 
this fact. For 400 years prior to the advent of Christ the 
Jews had been without any prophet, and God had left the 
faith of the people to be tried and disciplined. During that 
time they cherished the hope of the coming of the Messiah, 
but their rabbis and ecclesiastics had defined to themselves 
the sort of Messiah he would be when he did come and had 
taught their conception to the people with such dogmatism 
and authority that the nation had come to look upon the 
description as absolutely accurate. The complaint of the 
Messiah when he did come was that they had overlaid the 
truth about him with "the traditions of men." The concep- 
tion of the Messiah as an earthly potentate who would give 
to Israel and Jerusalem great earthly glory and power was 
accepted as a matter of certainty. When, however, Jesus 
came in his lowly state, and eschewed every vestige of earthly 
power, the disappointment was tremendous, and prejudice 
could not be easily set aside. They adopted the theory that 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 73 

he was a pretender because he was not what they confidently 
thought he would be. 

But another factor enters into the explanation of Israel's 
rejection of the Messiahship of Christ. It is mentioned and 
argued by Paul, that great and learned Israelite who became 
the most thorough and zealous apostle of Christ. It was the 
result of a divine judgment upon this people, who had been 
so signally under the distinguished tuition and instruction of 
God. Long ago Isaiah had quoted God as complaining, "All 
day long have I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and 
gainsaying people" (Rom. 10:21). Then after all these centu- 
ries of instruction and patience, when he sent them the Mes- 
siah, they crucified him, as the servants in the parable of the 
vineyard slew the son of the lord of the vineyard. For this 
consummate offence the apostle says Israel was cut off, be- 
cause they became "wise in their own conceits." Hence 
"blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness 
of the Gentiles be come in." Nevertheless, in due time, "all 
Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of 
Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from 
Jacob" (Rom. 11). Israel's blindness in rejecting the Messiah- 
ship of Jesus is judicial and disciplinary. It is more the result 
of God's displeasure with them than it is the inadequacy of 
the evidence of Christ's Messianic claims. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Christological Problems 

In Christology there are certain problems, created by the 
Incarnation. Their solutions challenge the interest and effort 
of the student, not only because their high nature tempts the 
daring spirit, but because their solutions have been made the 
premises of many radical and reconstructive conclusions in 
soteriology. Of these problems the following are the chiefest : 
(i) How was the Incarnation possible? (2) What was the 
chief end of the Incarnation? (3) What was the mode of the 
Incarnation? (4) Did the Incarnation render the Redeemer 
peccable? (5) How was the Incarnation affected by the glori- 
fication of the Redeemer? 

1. Possibility of the Incarnation. — How could the son of 
God become man without at the same time ceasing to be the 
Son of God? How could the Infinite become the finite with- 
out ceasing to be the Infinite? Is not the very conception of 
the God-man self-contradictory, imposing upon the believer 
the necessity of denying one or more of the fundamental 
laws of thought? Are not divinity and humanity in- 
trinsically incommensurate forms of existence? When the- 
ology writes of the union of the divine and the human in a 
single personality, is it not dealing with words rather than 
with apprehensible facts? These are the questions which 
Unitarian and Rationalistic thinkers regard as unanswerable 
by orthodox Christologists. The concept of a divine-human 
being is held to b& intrinsically absurd and unthinkable. 

To these questions two answers are given, and to these 
problems two solutions are proposed — the one traditional and 
orthodox, and the other heterodox and pantheistical. The 
orthodox party grounds the possibility of the Incarnation (1) 
in the trinitarian constitution of the Godhead, while the pan- 
therizing party grounds it (2) in the metaphysical kinship of 
divinity and humanity. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 75 

1. To the trinitarian mind the incarnation was possible 
because there were three persons in the Godhead. God is one 
in substance, but he is three in personality; were he a per- 
sonal unit even as he is a substantive monad, then it would be 
clear that incarnation would, in a sense, humanitize the Deity ; 
but if there are the three persons in the Godhead, then it is 
clear that the Second Person could take to himself a human 
nature without incarnating the entire Godhead. If there are 
three sons in the same family, the marriage of one does not, ipso 
facto, unite the whole family to the new wife. The incarnation 
of the Second Person in the Godhead does require us to think 
of that Person as incarnate, but the Father and the Spirit 
abide as unincarnate Deity. Thus a sound Christology reacts 
upon and makes necessary a sound trinitarianism. Without 
this conception of the Godhead there is no rational interpreta- 
tion of Christ, and those who have begun with a denial of the 
Trinity have ended in the denial of Christ. The Second Per- 
son in the Trinity assumed to himself a human nature, did 
not incorporate it into himself, nor fuse it with his divine 
nature, and these two natures abide in him unmerged and 
unmixed, after a manner analogous to that in which a physical 
and bodily nature is united with a spiritual and mental 
nature in the constitution of man himself. There is no more 
inherent impossibility of two natures — the human and the 
divine — being grasped into unity in the constitution of the 
person of Christ than there is of two natures — the physical 
and the psychical — being grasped into unity in the constitu- 
tion of man. In a sense humanity and divinity are no more 
metaphysical opposites than are body and spirit. Man does 
not cease to be a spirit because his soul is embodied ; neither 
does Christ cease to be God because his divine person is in- 
carnated. When we speak of the physico-psychological man 
we are no more using words without meaning than when we 
speak of a divine-human being. It is, therefore, the trinitarian 
conception of God that renders rational and consistent and 
uncontradictory the conception of a divine-human Redeemer. 



76 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

2. But pantheizing speculators seek to give a rational ex- 
planation of the possibility of the Incarnation by predicating 
a metaphysical kinship between divinity and humanity. It 
denies the current doctrine of the antithesis between the in- 
finite and the finite and affirms that they are the same in kind, 
differing only in degree. It is denied that God and man are 
differentiated from each other by any substantive fact and affirms 
that they are different from each other only in degree ; man is 
held to be a little divinity and God is held to be a big man. The 
infinite and the finite are held to be the same in kind and 
metaphysically identical ; God is immanent in the world and 
the world is immanent in God ; God unfolded is the universe 
and the universe infolded is God ; the universe, ab initio, is 
God, and God in the process of evolution or becoming is the 
universe, and the universe again, ab eventu, is God ; all evolu- 
tion describes a circle — out of God, through the universe, back 
to God as the final termination; the terminus a quo is deity, 
the historical process is the universe, and the terminus 
ad quern is God; all life is circular. Primal deity is uncon- 
scious, formless substance; he must, in the immanent evolu- 
tions of his own life, come to self-consciousness, which occurs 
when man appears ; and the ascensive evolution of man must 
be upwards in the scale of being until he emerges, through 
the development, back into deity. Instead, therefore, of the 
finite being substantively different from the Infinite, we are 
told that the Infinite interpenetrates the finite, and the rela- 
tion between the two is only and merely formal. Deity is 
immanent in the mineral, the flora, the fauna, but superla- 
tively in the humana. Consequently, we are assured, there 
is no difficulty in God's becoming man; he must become man; 
it is the natural and normal goal of the development ; human- 
ity and divinity do not differ substantively, because they are 
but stages in the development of the same metaphysical na- 
ture. Divinity yearns for humanity and humanity yearns for 
divinity ; the ideal can never be realized until divinity becomes 
humanity; the incarnation, therefore, is not only metaphysi- 
cally possible, but it is metaphysically necessary. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience JJ 

Many able speculators have adopted this as the only 
tenable rationale of the Incarnation and exhibited it with 
philosophical skill and with rhetorical charmingness ; and many 
orthodox writers have been captured by, and enamored of, this 
interpretation ; and, all unconscious of the destructive conse- 
quences implicated in it, have set it forth in sermon and essay 
to the fascination of those hearers whose ears itch for novel 
and fresh and unusual expositions of sacred truth. But the 
explanation raises more difficulties, and difficulties more 
serious, than it relieves. 

(i) It bottoms itself upon Pantheism as its first premise, 
and starts out in the field of Christology with all the objec- 
tions to this visionary philosophy hung around its neck; the 
explanation of the incarnation which it makes cannot be any 
more acceptable than the philosophy with which it works. 
It must prove, to start with, that God's relation to the world 
is one of immanence and not of transcendence — that God is 
an intramundane, and not an extramundane, being. If the 
philosophy is false, the special conclusion concerning the in- 
carnation which is founded upon it must be likewise un- 
tenable. 

(2) If God is thus immanent in all men, in order for it 
to be possible for him to be incarnate in Christ Jesus, a par- 
ticular person, it follows, logically and unavoidably, that every 
man is an incarnate deity; the argument proves too much; it 
proves that Christ was incarnate deity by proving that all 
men are incarnate deities. The inferences from such a gen- 
eralization are at once absurd and abhorrent. 

(3) If it were true that the incarnation were made pos- 
sible by the metaphysical yearning of divinity for humanity, 
it is equally true that it became a fact in this mode; then it 
must necessarily follow that the entire divinity, being indi- 
visible and indiscerptible, entered into union with humanity, 
and there is now no pure, or incarnate, deity. In other words, 
the entire problem is shifted from the question, How can the 



78 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Son of God become man? to the question, How can the entire 
Godhead become human? That is, this school of thinkers 
resolve the problem by changing it into one entirely different. 
If, therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity be held, it follows 
that all three persons of the Godhead — the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost — became incarnate, which is not the ques- 
tion in debate and which in itself is an absurdity. If it be 
denied that there are three persons in the Godhead, then it is 
sought to explain the doctrine of the incarnation by first deny- 
ing the doctrine of the Trinity, which, again, is not the ques- 
tion. If divinity united with humanity, metaphysically, then 
it was the union of the whole divinity with the whole hu- 
manity, and there is, and, from these premises, there can be, 
no other than incarnate deity in existence, unless the incarnate 
deity has evolved himself again out of the incarnate state into 
the unincarnate state. 

(4) But this explanation explains nothing in debate. 
The question is, How can the Son of God become man with- 
out incarnating the Godhead? The answer which the panthe- 
izers give to this question is, The thing supposed is possible 
because divinity is like humanity and is immanent in hu- 
manity. Then, if under the reciprocal impulse of the two to 
come together the union is actually effected, does not the 
Infinite become the finite? How can any theory as to the 
mode of the union, or as to the metaphysical nature of divinity 
on the one hand and of humanity on the other, serve to show 
how the Son of God can become man without the divinity in 
him becoming compressed, finite, limited? 

(5) The pantheizers miss the whole question when they 
ask, How can divinity become humanity without ceasing to 
be divinity? It would be impossible, without a verbal and 
obvious contradiction, for divinity to become humanity with- 
out ceasing to be divinity and becoming humanity. If divinity 
becomes humanity, then it becomes humanity and is as unlike 
divinity as humanity is unlike divinity. It would be equal to 
the absurdity, How can a circle become a triangle and yet 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 79 

remain a circle? How can divinity become humanity and yet 
remain divinity? It is a verbal contradiction. Theology 
raises and debates no such childish absurdity. Its question is, 
How can the Son of God so become man as to be a God-man? 
In talking about divinity and humanity, the pantheizers have 
left the concrete person and given themselves to abstractions. 
They have made the question foolish and absurd on its face. 
The incarnation is a possibility only on the supposition that 
there are three persons in the Godhead. Deny that proposi- 
tion, and it is impossible for there to be any incarnation of 
the Son of God. A sound Christology depends upon a sound 
Trinitarianism. 

II. Object of the Incarnation. — A second Christological 
problem arises out of an attempt to define the reason, or ob- 
ject, or end of the Incarnation. Why did the Son of God be- 
come man? To this question there are two answers given — 
the one traditional and orthodox and the other speculative 
and heterodox: (1) for redemptive ends only, and (2) for 
metaphysical reasons. 

1. Would the Son of God have become flesh if it had not 
been for sin and the purposes of redemption? The traditional 
answer to this question has been in the negative. Anselm, 
in his Cur Deus Homo, gave this answer long years ago, and 
the vast majority of Christian interpreters have concurred 
with him. Had Adam stood his probation successfully, and 
had there been no advent of sin into human history, then there 
had been no incarnation, because there would have been no 
reason for the Son of God becoming the son of man. The 
reason for the incarnation is in the fact of sin and the divine 
purpose to redeem. The angel of annunciation said to Joseph, 
"Thou shalt call his name JESUS ; for he shall save his people 
from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). "When the fulness of the time 
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made 
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that 
we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4:4, 5). Why 
did God send forth his Son, and why was he made of a woman 



80 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

and under law? The answer is explicit and direct — "to re- 
deem them that were under the law, that we might receive 
the adoption of sons." This seems to leave no room to debate 
the purpose of the Redeemer's advent in human flesh. "This 
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (i Tim. 1:15). 
Had there been no sinners to be saved, then there had been 
no meaning and no sense in his coming into the world. "For- 
asmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, 
he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through 
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that 
is, the devil ; and deliver them, who through fear of death were 
all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14, 15). Why 
did he partake of human nature? The answer is again ex- 
plicit — to destroy the devil and to deliver his people. The 
Scriptures seem, therefore, to answer this question, and to 
define the mission of Christ into this world to be the salvation 
of sinners. 

2. On the other hand, it is held by those theologians who 
work with pantheistic concepts that the chief end of the in- 
carnation was the metaphysical union of humanity and di- 
vinity. That is, the incarnation instead of being a means to 
an end was an end in itself. Consequently, the incarnation 
would have taken place even if there had been no sin. The 
ideal of divinity is union with humanity and the ideal of 
humanity is union with divinity; the union must become his- 
toric, else each would forever be incomplete and less than the 
ideal. Divinity is perfected when it unites with humanity 
and humanity is perfected when it unites with divinity; a 
theanthropic unit is the goal of the whole divine-human cona- 
tion and evolutionary struggle. 

This was the view of Martensen and Dorner. They teach 
that the race was created for the God-man, and it must have 
a God-man, not only to redeem it, but to make it metaphysi- 
cally perfect. Such a being is the head of the race; and 
without him mankind would be incomplete in its evolution 
and ideal. Had Adam remained holy, the Son of God must 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 81 

still become incarnate to fill out to roundness and perfection 
the metaphysical concept of humanity — to sum up all things 
in himself, whether they be things in heaven or things in 
earth. Mary would have borne the child she did bear even if 
the race had been saintly and morally ideal. The profoundest 
necessity for the incarnation was first metaphysical and sec- 
ondarily moral and evangelical. 

This view of the incarnation is commonly held in con- 
nection with a larger view of soteriology, an ampler schedule 
of doctrine. God's relation to the world has from the first been 
one of self-communication and self-revelation and self-expres- 
sion — made so by immanent and uncreated impulses from the 
very center of his own being. Creation was the beginning of 
the unfolding, the starting point of the evolution of Deity; 
the incarnation was the culmination of the process ; and the 
consummation of the kingdom of glory is the completion of 
the evolution. God first communicates himself to the material 
world, which is a true but inadequate expression of his life. 
Then in man, his likeness and image, he finds a yet truer and 
higher expression of himself. But the race continues to move 
on from lower to higher stages of human life and develop- 
ment, each being but a higher and more transcendent develop- 
ment of the Deity. The progress is ever ascensive and the 
approximations to the ideal are ever drawing nearer and 
nearer. However splendid the human specimens, they are 
still but approximations and adumbrations of the perfect 
specimen which has been the goal of all the evolution. In 
Jesus of Nazareth, the child of Mary, the evolution culminated 
and God found himself embodied and adequately expressed 
incarnate — the metaphysical Perfecter of the race on the one 
hand, and of deity on the other hand. Looked at from hu- 
manity's side, Jesus is the Ideal Man; looked at from the 
side of divinity, Jesus is the Ideal God. The Ideal Man is one 
whose human nature has united with divinity; and the Ideal 
God is one whose divine nature has united with humanity. 
This great junction occurred when the evolutionary process 
brought forth the Child of Mary. The theory attempts to ex- 



82 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

plain the incarnation by using the hypothesis of evolution as 
explanatory of the becoming of that divine-human being 
whom we call Christ. It is another splendid illustration of 
the sad havoc this miserable hypothesis is making of common 
sense and sane doctrines. The beauty of the speculation, for 
minds that love speculation for its own sake, is not to be de- 
nied; but there are several considerations which render so 
romantic a theory utterly fallacious and untenable. 

(i) This hypothesis assumes that divinity is metaphysi- 
cally imperfect, and that it must be complemented with hu- 
manity in order to become ideal. It denies that the reason 
for the incarnation was ethical or evangelical and affirms that 
the reason was metaphysical and constitutional. God must 
unite with man, whether man be sinner or saint; he must 
unite with him in order to perfect and render ideal the life 
of deity. The necessity of the incarnation is thus held to be 
subjective to the inherent and intrinsic nature of divinity; 
divinity without humanity is ideally imperfect. No theory 
is tenable which starts out with the hypothesis that God, 
even as man, must grow and become full-grown by uniting 
with humanity. The hypothesis fails because it applies the 
idea of the imperfect to the Deity in order to put him through 
some evolutionary process which will ultimately perfect his 
life by joining him to man. 

(2) The hypothesis equally assumes that the defect in 
human nature is metaphysical and constitutional as well as 
moral. Christ did come into the world, it is held, to cure a 
moral infirmity in the race ; all the same, he would have come 
anyhow to cure a metaphysical defect in the very make-up 
of man ! It is hard enough for the Calvinistic system to main- 
tain the doctrine, in the face of a vain and egotistical race, that 
human nature is morally blemished and needs regeneration 
in its fundamental appetencies ; how much more difficult must 
it be for this hypothesis to maintain the proposition that 
human nature is not only morally defective, but that it is 
also constitutionally deficient? 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 83 

l 

(3) It is obvious, therefore, that the hypothesis changes 
the question of human salvation from a moral question to a 
metaphysical question. The moral question is, How can a 
sinner be just with God? The metaphysical question which 
this school raises is, How can a man be united to God? The 
atonement then must be made for the incidental purpose of 
cleansing human nature that it may have a metaphysical 
union with divinity. The gospel is thus transmuted into a 
mere system of metaphysics ! 

(4) This hypothesis directly contradicts the answer 
which the Scriptures give to the question, Why did the Son 
of God become man? Christ says he came to save the world 
(Jno. 12:47). He defined his mission, and said it was to seek 
and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). There is not so much as 
a hint that he came into the world to unite divinity and hu- 
manity, in order that he might perfect the ideal by presenting 
to the universe a theanthropic being as the realization of the 
divine-human ideal. If not positively unscriptural this hy- 
pothesis, to say the least of it, is extra-scriptural and purely 
speculative. The incarnation, therefore, was a means to an 
end — a means to the end of saving sinners ; it was not an end 
in itself — that divinity and humanity might be joined for the 
sake of completing a metaphysical ideal. The purpose of the 
incarnation was ethical and evangelical, and not metaphysical 
and speculative. 

III. Mode of the Incarnation. — Still another problem is 
that of the mode of the incarnation. How did the son of God 
become man? Upon this mooted question we have the two 
answers from the same sources, the one traditional and ortho- 
dox, and the other speculative and pantheistic. (1) Accord- 
ing to the evangelical view the incarnation was voluntary; 
(2) according to the speculative view it was evolutionary. 

1. "The Son of God became man by taking to himself a 
true body and a reasonable soul." His assumption of human 
nature was voluntary and in no sense evolutionary, or a neces- 
sity of nature. It was an act of his divine will and not the 



84 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

outcome of any constitutional or metaphysical yearnings. In 
the orthodox Christology there was no depotentiation of di- 
vinity downwards to the dimensions of humanity nor was 
there any impotentiation of humanity upwards to the propor- 
tions of divinity; the Second Person in' the Trinity took to 
himself a true body and a reasonable soul without affecting 
or modifying or changing his essential divine nature. As a 
babe in Bethlehem he was the Son of God with a divine nature 
in no wise reduced from the fulness of divinity. The boy 
Jesus grew in stature and knowledge, but there was no addi- 
tion to his perfect divine nature either in the way of an in- 
crease of knowledge or enlargement of stature. If at his 
baptism his human nature was made fully conscious of the 
divine, then, as all the while previous, his divine mind had 
been fully self-conscious of his consubstantial unity with the 
Godhead. Whatever revelations may have been made during 
his ministry and on the cross, they were not revelations to 
his divine nature but only and solely to his human nature; 
he was always divine and fully conscious of his divinity. By 
an act of his will, he took to himself a human nature; the 
mode of the incarnation was voluntary. 

2. According to the pantheizers, on the other hand, the 
incarnation was not voluntary but evolutionary. The union 
of divinity and humanity came about not by the voluntary 
assumption of human nature by the divine will of the Son of 
God, but by an immanent and reciprocal yearning of the two 
natures for union with each other. As oxygen has a chemical 
affinity for hydrogen, or as the acid has a chemical affinity 
for the alkali, so divinity has a kind of chemical affinity for 
humanity and humanity has a kind of chemical affinity for 
divinity, and under this reciprocal impulse for each other the 
two came together, met and amalgamated in Jesus of Naza- 
reth. The union was by process, and the process was from 
within the natures and not by personal and voluntary assump- 
tion. "The fulness of time" connotes that hour when in the 
general development everything was ripe for the merging of 
the two natures. As there was a moment when the vegetable 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 85 

rose into the animal and the animal rose into the man, so 
there was a moment when the Son of God by a naturalistic 
process rose into the son of man. 

The disciples of this way of thinking divide, among them- 
selves, into two special classes, each giving his own account 
of the specific process by which the union was effected. There 
are (1) the Kenotists, (2) the Crypsistics. 

(1) According to the Kenotists the Son of God gradually 
depotentiated himself of the forms of deity downwards to 
the dimensions of the babe of Bethlehem — and the incarnation 
took place by a mode of self-emptying. Paul tells us that 
Christ Jesus who was "in the form, of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, 
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
likeness of men" (Phil. 2:6, 7). Here, then, was a being 
whose primary "form" was the "form of God" ; then this being 
"emptied himself" of the "form of God," and presented a 
secondary "form," which was "the likeness of men" ; such a 
transformation, we are told, could have been effected only by 
a process of self-emptying — a denudation of the form of deity 
to the form of a baby in a mother's arms. Accordingly the 
Son of God became man by degrading himself from a divine 
"form" down to a human "form." To do it in this mode, the 
perfections and attributes of deity must be laid aside and the 
body and attributes of a man must be assumed instead at the 
lowest initial point of manhood — at infancy. His size was 
diminished from infinitude to that of a human baby; his 
knowledge was reduced from omniscience to infantile ignor- 
ance ; all his divine perfections underwent a similar denuda- 
tion. Deityhood was poured out until manhood was reached. 

(2) The Crypsistics account for the matter in an entirely 
different mode. To their thought, humanity is germinal di- 
vinity, and consequently the problem only requires that what 
is intrinsically embryonic divinity shall be raised to the height 
and proportion of true deity. The oak is infolded in the acorn ; 
divinity is infolded in humanity; the only desideratum is to 
bring out what is thus inwrapped and enswathed. The infant 



86 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

in Bethlehem was an infant deity; the boy in the temple was 
nothing else but a boy-God on his way to maturity ; the man 
Christ Jesus was an infant God come of age ; the glorified 
Saviour was the babe of Bethlehem now grown into the ful- 
ness of Divinity. The process is crypsistic, or hidden, because 
it consisted, not in the depotentiation of divinity down to the 
grade of humanity, but in the reimpotentiation of humanity 
from an embryo up to the dimension of the infinite God. This 
wing founded their interpretation mainly upon the text, "And 
the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit" (Luke 1 :8o). "And 
the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom ; 
and the grace of God was upon him" (Luke 2:40). "And 
Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with 
God and man" (Luke 2:52). How, it is triumphantly asked, 
could there be growth if he were, as the orthodox teach, 
always God? The "child" of the New Testament grew, and 
grew, and grew — and what was the final limit of the growth? 
We are told that he never ceased to grow until he reached the 
dimensions of deity. According to Kenosis, that "child" was 
a depotentiated divinity; according to Crypsis, that "child" 
was an embryonic divinity. The one party starts his life in 
heaven and degrades him to the proportions and form of a 
man ; the other party starts his life on the earth and impoten- 
tiates it until he is raised to the infinite degree of life. With 
the one, Christ was a humanized deity ; with the other, he was 
a deitized human. For the one, the movement was down to 
humiliation ; according to the other, the evolution was from 
humiliation upwards to exaltation. Christ "grew" to be di- 
vine. 

Both these hypotheses as to the mode of the incarnation 
are rendered untenable by several effective considerations. 

(1) They equally miss the question in debate. That ques- 
tion is : How can the Son of God become man so as. to con- 
tinue to be God and man in two distinct natures and one 
person? The question these speculators raise is: How can 
the Son of God become man so as to continue to be one per- 
son with one nature? The Kenotists answer this question by 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 87 

saying that he emptied himself of the form of God and took 
upon himself the form of man ; that is, he was really God 
in the incarnation, but phenomenally man ; or truly God and 
apparently man. The Crypsistics tell us that he was germi- 
nally God, while apparently a human infant, who grew more 
and more into the likeness of the deity. But the phenomena 
of Christ's life are twofold — partly divine and partly human, 
and both divine and human at the same time ; and the question 
awakened by the Scripture representation of him is, How 
can he be both divine and human at one and the same time? 
These pantheizers, holding to the fundamental premise of 
the pantheistic philosophy, namely, that God and man are 
substantively one, raise and seek to answer the question, How 
can a being who at first had only the appearance of God sub- 
sequently come to have the appearance and exhibit the phe- 
nomena of man? Denying the true duality of the natures in 
Christ, they endeavor to show how the facts of his life as set 
out in the gospels can be squared with their fundamental 
contention that there is and can be but one nature in the Re- 
deemer. The Kenotists answer by saying that he is substan- 
tively God, but phenomenally man ; and the Cryptics answer 
that the human embryo is really but a divine embryo and 
must develop into full-fledged deity. Both parties miss the 
question which the gospels create concerning the life of the 
sinner's Redeemer. 

(2) This hypothesis, either in its Kenotic or Cryptic 
form, truly limits and conditions the infinite. If the deity 
lays off his divine attributes and depotentiates! himself to a 
man, then, though he may not have humanized his substance, 
he has practised self-limitation until he has cramped infinite 
perfections into finite forms ; this is, and can be, nothing short 
of self-destruction, for what is a God worth who has only the 
attributes of a man? If the deity be held to be a babe in Beth- 
lehem, still the mighty God has become, somehow, com- 
pressed into the limits of an infant, and is, at most, only poten- 
tially divine. In his life as set forth in the gospels, there is 
one set of attributes which are divine and another set of per- 



88 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

fections which are human; they coexist in him at the same 
time ; and the fundamental law — like attributes, like substance 
— requires us to predicate concerning him, (a) not that he is 
a God become man, nor (b) that he is a man on his way to 
become a God, but (c) that he is a true and proper God-man. 
According to the Cryptic view, Jesus is a man who will ulti- 
mately deitize himself; and according to the Kenotic view, 
he is a deity who has humanized himself; but according to 
the gospels, he is a divine-human being. 

(3) This hypothesis as to the mode of the incarnation 
not only misconstrues the Christ of the gospels, but it also 
misinterprets God. Once admit that God is a necessary and 
immutable form of being, and at once it becomes impossible 
for us to conceive! of him as giving up his divine mode of 
being for a human mode of life or to imagine him as being in 
a condensed infantile form to be expanded into a full infinite 
form. The hypothesis is contradictory of the very meta- 
physical nature of deity. What is God must always be God, 
because divinity is a necessary and unchangeable mode of 
being; the hypothesis denies fundamental predications con- 
cerning the nature of deity. 

(4) The hypothesis misinterprets the texts of Scripture 
upon which it chiefly relies for support. It is true the gospels 
tell us that "the Word became flesh" (Jno. 1 114) ; but there 
is not a syllable here which explains the mode in which the 
Word became flesh. We must learn that, if at all, from some 
other place. When we go to the classic passage of Kenotics 
(Phil. 2:6-11), we are distinctly told in the text that there 
was a giving up of "the form of God/' but it is unwarranted 
to assume that he gave up the substance of the Godhead, as 
some claim, or that he gave up the attributes of diety, as 
others insist; because we find him after the incarnation still 
exercising the attributes which he is said to have surrendered ; 
so that something else must be found for him to surrender in 
order to satisfy the statement. What was it? What was the 
"form of God" which he laid aside that he might assume the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 89 

form of a man? Not the substance, not the attributes, but 
the glory of God ; it was that which was surrendered for the 
life of humiliation on the earth in the performance of his 
mediatorial functions — the glory which he had in the begin- 
ning with the Father and which he won back when he tri- 
umphantly executed the scheme of redemption which had 
been entrusted to him. Then it is to be further noted that, 
in laying aside this primal glory of deity for the humiliation 
of manhood and servitude, instead of this change being en- 
gendered by any immanent motions or yearnings of the divine 
nature for the human, the text explicitly says that he "took" 
the form of a servant and the likeness of a man ; that is, the 
exchange of heavenly glory for earthly humiliation and servi- 
tude was not the result of any evolutionary impulses of nature, 
but it was voluntarily assumed. Then when we turn to the 
texts of the Cryptics about the child Jesus "increasing in 
wisdom and stature," and waxing strong in spirit and knowl- 
edge, the text is abundantly satisfied, and clearly interpreted, 
w T hen we remember that he assumed an infant body and an 
infant mind, which developed normally according to the laws 
of human life and growth, and we are instantly freed from all 
the absurdities about deity growing into man, or man grow- 
ing into deity. These texts do not therefore require these 
metaphysical speculations, in either their Kenotic or Cryptic 
forms, to interpret them truly and rationally. 

IV. Impeccability of Christ. — Was the incarnate Re- 
deemer peccable or impeccable? Hodge argues that he was 
peccable ; Shedd robustly and strenuously contends that he 
was impeccable. The question is not, Was Christ as a matter 
of fact sinless? All Christologists hold that he never com- 
mitted the least sin; but the question is the academic one, 
Could he have sinned? I hold, in a sense, with both parties, 
and attempt to resolve the problem by drawing a distinction. 
I hold, (1) that he was metaphysically peccable, but (2) that 
he was morally impeccable. 

1. Christ was metaphysically peccable. By this I mean 
that the constitution of the incarnate Saviour was such that 



go Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the commission of sin was, to him, an abstract possibility. A 
tree is metaphysically impeccable ; that is, a tree is such a thing 
as does not possess the faculties or organs required to commit a 
sin. So a horse is metaphysically impeccable because it is 
impersonal ; that is, a horse does not possess the attributes 
and faculties which make it possible for the horse to trans- 
gress the moral law. But Christ is not a tree, nor is he a 
horse ; he is a free person, with all the attributes and endow- 
ments of personality ; that is, he has the powers and capacities 
and faculties needed in the possible commission of sin. Hence 
I say he was metaphysically peccable. 

(i) He must have been metaphysically peccable in order 
to a true and proper humanity. We know nothing about a 
human nature which does not possess the potestas peccare. 
Adam, as created and sinless, possessed this power, and exer- 
cised it in the garden of Eden to the undoing of himself and 
all his posterity. Men, fallen and as seen to-day, possess it, 
and are perpetually displaying the fact by manifold and multi- 
form transgressions of the law of God. Christians, who have 
undergone regeneration, and are in the process of sanctifica- 
tion, possess it, and are daily illustrations of the proposition 
that converted men can do the things that are forbidden. 
Saints in glory are infallible, not because they do not possess 
the potestas peccare, not because they have been so changed 
in their metaphysics as to render their falling an impossibility, 
but because they are kept in their integrity by the power of 
God. The final perseverance of the saints does not rest on 
the fact that the potestas peccare has been deleted from their 
personal equipment, but upon the fact that they are so morally 
renovated that the motions of their souls will never be in the 
direction of evil ; they are kept for ever by the power which 
converts, namely, the grace of God. God, however, does not 
possess the potestas peccare, because he is an eternal and 
necessary being; he cannot deny himself. The immortal 
standing of God in righteousness and holiness is not due to 
his will, but to the metaphysics of his nature; it is not that 
he will not sin; it is true that he cannot sin. But any created 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 91 

free agent must possess the power to sin ; it is an implicate 
in the very description and predication of free agency; it is 
only the holiness of an uncreated and self-existent being which 
is itself uncontingent and self-existent. For Christ, therefore, 
to be a partaker in deed and in truth of human nature, he 
must, metaphysically speaking, possess the abstract power of 
sinning. He was no tree ; he was no horse ; he was a true and 
bona fide man, with all the attributes and endowments of 
created human nature. 

(2) He must have been metaphysically peccable in order 
to a true and proper temptability. A tree is intemptable ; 
there is nothing in its constitution to which an inducement to 
do morally wrong can appeal. A horse is intemptable, be- 
cause there is nothing in his nature upon which anything 
unethical can attach itself. But Jesus possessed a genuine 
human sensibility, with all its complex appetencies and de- 
sires ; he possessed a true human conscience, with all the func- 
tions of perception and moral powers. He was, therefore, 
metaphysically temptable ; and as a matter of historical fact, 
he was tempted as no other human being was ever tempted. 
The glory of his mediatorial righteousness was not due to the 
fact that he was such a being, in the make-up of his nature, 
as could not possibly respond to temptation, but it was due 
to the fact that he was both temptable and tempted, resisted 
even unto blood and wrought out his obedience without fall- 
ing where he metaphysically could have fallen. The tempta- 
tion in the wilderness would be inscrutable on the supposition 
that Jesus was such a person as could not have yielded. 

(3) He must have been metaphysically peccable in order 
to be a true and proper Second Adam. That he was a Second 
Adam the Scriptures categorically affirm ; and they run the 
parallel between the two Adams, saying, "As in Adam so in 
Christ. " The parallelism would promptly and effectually 
break down on the assumption that the Redeemer did not 
possess the potestas peccare. His Adamism would be se- 
riously and truly vitiated if it be held that while the first 



92 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

could have sinned the second was so constituted that he could 
not have sinned. To preserve his true Adamic type he must 
have had, metaphysically speaking, the ability to have sinned. 
The first Adam was "a figure of him which was to come" ; 
but had he been so made that sin was a sheer impossiblity for 
him he would not have been in a true and genuine sense like 
the Adam of Eden. To preserve the Adamic principle, so 
fundamental in soteriology, Christ must have been metaphysi- 
cally peccable. 

(4) He must have been metaphysically peccable in order 
to a true and proper probation. A moral probation is a moral 
trial in which an issue is involved and which must be settled 
by the action of the probationer. If the probationer be meta- 
physically such a being as could not fall, how can there be 
any jeopardy of the issue? A reward is held out on condition 
that the probationer successfully endure a prescribed test ; 
but the probationer is so constituted that it is imposssible for 
him to do otherwise than comply with the condition imposed ; 
where would be the reality of such a testing? Our Lord 
came into the world to perform a certain task — to obey both 
the precept and the penalty of God's law; but according to 
the hypothesis he was by his very nature unable to do any- 
thing else; then his mediation must be held to have been 
necessitated in all its issues, and so the work of Christ to have 
been without merit. Jesus purchased the redemption of his 
people ; he earned his mediatorial reward ; it is perfectly 
proper and strictly true that his work was meritorious. The 
first Adam was a true and proper probationer; an issue was 
involved ; a task was imposed ; his fate, and that of all whom 
he represented, hung upon his conduct; he failed, and his 
doom was sealed. No natural descendant of his is a proba- 
tioner; we are all born with trial over and judgment rendered 
and destiny settled. Christ, as a Second Adam, was a true 
and proper probationer ; an issue was involved in his life ; a 
task was imposed; upon his action hangs the fate of himself 
and all those whom he represents. No true Christian is a 
probationer; the moral issues involved in his case were tried 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 93 

in Christ, and in him settled; he is a saved man, and there is 
no sort of possibility of his being condemned. But Christ was 
a real probationer, and was subjected to a real moral test, 
which he triumphantly stood. But how can we conceive of 
true probation and a true issue where the probationer does not 
possess the potestas peccare? The glory of the Redeemer's 
triumph consists in the fact that he succeeded where he could 
have failed. 

(5) I have now argued that Christ must have been meta- 
physically peccable, in order, (a) to be a man like unto other 
men, (b) to be truly tempted, (c) to be a Second Adam, (d) 
to be a real probationer; but I have not made the fallacious 
argument, (e) that he had to be peccable in order to be a free 
agent. The potestas peccare — the ability to sin — is not of the 
essence of free agency. If it were, there could be no free 
agent who did not possess such ability. The Arminian con- 
tention is that ability to the contrary is of the essence of free 
agency, so that any and every free agent ipso facto possesses 
the power to sin. Free agency is the power to do as the per- 
son pleases ; it does not implicate power to the contrary. God 
is a free agent; there are none bold enough to deny it; yet 
the Deity does not possess the power to sin ; "he cannot deny 
himself; the thing is a sheer impossibility; and therefore the 
ability to sin is not essential to the concept of free agency. 
A sinner is a free agent; but he does not possess the power 
to the contrary, for, in every instance, he must be converted 
by a power other than himself, namely, the Holy Spirit; there- 
fore ability to the contrary is not of the essence of free agency. 
A glorified saint in heaven is a free agent, with abounding 
liberty to do whatsoever he pleases ; yet he does not possess 
the power to the contrary — the potestas peccare; therefore it 
is not of the essence of free agency. A free agent is one who 
follows the listings of his own mind ; that does not mean that 
he must necessarily have a dual appetency — appentencies in 
opposite directions in order to be free. If he has but a single 
desire, and follows that desire to its end, he is clearly free. 
It is impossible for God to sin because it is impossible for 



94 Christian Salvation—Its Doctrine and Experience 

him to have any such desire; it is impossible for a glorified 
saint to fall out of heaven, because his appetencies have been 
so renovated that it is impossible for him to have such a 
desire as would ultimate in sin should he follow it into execu- 
tion. The potestas peccare — ability to sin — is essential to 
human nature, essential to temptation, essential to the concept 
of a second Adam, essential to probation, but it is not essen- 
tial to free agency. He is a free agent who has the metaphysi- 
cal power to follow his desires; but it is not true to say that 
in order to be free he must have the power to desire sin. The 
Arminian theology can be cleared of many difficulties and 
absurdities when it can be taught that the potestas peccare 
does not constitute the central nature of free agency. 

2. But while Christ was metaphysically peccable, he was 
morally impeccable. In other words, he was sustained in his 
mediatorial probation not by his metaphysical constitution 
but by his moral energy. His triumph was ethical. His moral 
resources were such as to sustain him. 

(i) Christ was rendered morally impeccable by his 
divine-human constitution. It is a familiar fact that, because 
of the duality of his natures, whatever is predicable of one 
nature, or of either nature, is predicable of his person. Be- 
cause his human nature grew in stature and increased in 
wisdom, it is correct to say that Christ grew in stature and 
increased in wisdom ; but, because his divine nature was in- 
finite and omniscent, it is correct to say that Christ was in- 
finite and omniscent. Because he suffered in his human 
nature, it is correct to say that Christ suffered and died ; but 
because he could not suffer in his divine nature but was 
always fully and perfectly blessed, it is correct to say that 
Christ never suffered but was always fully blessed and happy. 
These, and similarly apparent opposite predications are prop- 
erly made of him upon the well-accepted proposition that 
whatsoever is predicable of either nature is predicable' of the 
person. While, then, it is correct that Christ through his 
human nature was peccable, it is, upon the principle already 
announced, true that his human nature, by reason of its union 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 95 

with the divine nature, was morally impeccable ; that is, it is 
morally certain that a being so constituted as was the Re- 
deemer could not sin. Whenever he expresses himself hu- 
manly, he expresses himself through his human nature; and 
whenever he expresses himself divinely, he expresses himself 
through his divine nature ; but in either case, and in both 
cases, it is Christ who expresses himself, and the action is 
properly predicable of him. If, therefore, the Redeemer has 
sinned through his human nature, it would have been Christ 
who did the sinning, and the divine nature would have been 
involved in the transgression ; such a result is unthinkable ; 
hence I say it is morally impossible for Christ to exercise 
the potestas peccare which was an endowment of his human 
nature. The very metaphysics of his constitution creates a 
moral impossibility of his sinning, though the metaphysics 
of his human nature renders it possible from a metaphysical 
point of view for him to do so. Because he is a divine-human 
being it is morally impossible for him to exercise the potestas 
peccare. 

(2) Christ was morally impeccable because of the 
covenant which his Father made with him when he sent him 
into the world upon his redemptive mission. It was a part 
of the engagement of the Father at that time to keep him 
and support him in all of his arduous task of atonement. He 
did not make the advent and enter upon this mission without 
a prearrangement with his Father and without distinct stipu- 
lations of divine support in all the enterprise. The Father, 
it is absolutely certain, will fulfill every engagement and sus- 
tain him throughout the entire probation and in all the tempta- 
tions and bring him off triumphant. In his constitution his 
human nature is so related to his divine nature that it is abso- 
lutely certain that he will not morally fail in his task, and then 
in addition thereto he is so related to the Father in the task 
he has undertaken as to make it morally impossible for him 
to break down. His Father has promised to hold him up, and 
he is able to make the promise good and will in no case fail 
to keep his plighted word. 



96 Christian Salvation— Its Doctrine and Experience 

(3) He was morally impeccable because his human na- 
ture was entirely sanctified. The Spirit was given him with- 
out measure; grace was poured into his lips; he was always 
under the leadings of the Holy Ghost; it was impossible for 
him to go wrong when under that leading. A sanctified 
Christian — entirely sanctified — is morally impeccable because 
he is under the entire and complete control of an unerring 
guide directing from within outwards. This is the very mean- 
ing and ground of the final perseverance of the saints ; they 
are kept by the grace of God ; it is his power which holds and 
directs and insures. In the same way, it is the same Spirit 
which leads and sanctifies the Redeemer's human nature 
wholly and insures him against the possibility of apostacy. 
Put any being under the sway of this inerrant Spirit, and the 
issue is assured. So was Christ rendered morally impeccable. 

V. The Glorified Redeemer. — There still remains the 
problem as to the Glorified Redeemer. What effect did the 
ascension have upon the constitution of the person of Christ? 
Is he to-day, on the throne of his glory, incarnate or unin- 
carnate? Has he been divested of his humanity, or is he still 
clothed with a genuine human nature? Has the human been 
exalted into the divine, or is it still subject to the limitations 
which belong to a man? Has there been either a transforma- 
tion, or a transubstantiation, as the result of his exaltation 
and glorification? 

1. Orthodox and Reformed Christologists answer that 
the glorified Redeemer is, in heaven as he was on earth, a 
genuine theanthropic being. There has been no denudation, 
no transformation, no transubstantiation, no fusion, no trans- 
fer of divine perfections to the human nature of the encrowned 
Saviour. He is "God and man, in two distinct natures, but 
one person forever." His exaltation to glory was not final 
impotentiation of the human to the divine but a crowning of 
the triumphant Saviour of sinners with the honor and dignity 
and glory which he won for himself in his successful per- 
formance of the mediatorial task. It is the Theanthropos, the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 97 

God-man, who occupies the mediatorial throne, wears the 
mediatorial prerogatives and dispenses the mediatorial rewards. 
He is described in the Hebrews as "the same yesterday, to- 
day, and forever." John in the Apocalypse was granted a 
vision of the enthroned Redeemer, and saw one "as it had 
been a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" sitting 
upon the throne and receiving the worship of every creature 
which treads the gorgeous mosaic of the skies. He promised 
his disciples as he took his departure from the hills of Judea 
"that they should see him descending in like manner as they 
saw him ascend into heaven." They saw him leave the earth 
with a veritable human nature, a true body and a reasonable 
soul, changed in its dignity and glory but not substantially 
transmuted into something else; what they saw ascend into 
heaven, the earth will see descend therefrom. The everlasting 
King of the heavenly kingdom of the saints will be the divine- 
human Saviour of sinners. As the Second Person in the 
adorable Godhead he is a coequal sharer with the Father and 
the Spirit of the glory and power of the absolute kingdom of 
the Trinity; but as the head of the mediatorial and redemp- 
tive kingdom, the kingdom of ransomed sinners, finally set 
up in heaven, he is a divine-human Head, wearing the glories 
of the mediatorial dominion as a sub-kingdom under the gov- 
ernment of the Triune God. 

2. But the pantheizers and those theologians who may 
be described as afflicted with a theological "wanderlust" tell 
us that the glorified Redeemer has somehow become trans- 
formed from all resemblance to a real man into some sort of 
divinity. After the Son of God had depotentiated himself 
downwards to the proportions of a man, then he reimpoten- 
tiated himself upwards to the proportions of divinity and the 
evolution became perfected at the moment of Christ's ascen- 
sion to heaven. Consequently his human limitations have 
now disappeared and his human nature can be held to be 
ubiquitous in such sense that it can be truthfully said that 
his human body and soul are present in the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper and wherever the people of God are assembled 



98 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

for worship. "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of 
the world." He can keep such a promise, we are told, only 
on the supposition that his human nature has lost its natural 
limitations in the glorification of his person. That is, the 
Saviour has been exalted out of all semblance of a man. The 
whole vagary springs out of the fact that these teachers are, 
consciously or unconsciously, plowing with the pantheistic 
heifer. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Mediation 

The Son of God became incarnate in order to be a Medi- 
ator. The idea of salvation by mediation is thoroughly Bibli- 
cal. In the Old Testament ritual the priest mediated between 
God and Israel, going into the shekinah of the divine presence 
with the blood of the victim and returning to the outer door 
with the absolution and benediction for the people. In the 
New Testament the title is repeatedly applied to the Re- 
deemer. "For there is one God, and one mediator between 
God and man, the man Christ Jesus" (i Tim. 2:5). "He is the 
mediator of a better covenant" (Heb. 8:6). "For this cause 
he is the mediator of the new testament" (Heb. 9:15). "Jesus 
the mediator of the new covenant" (Heb. 12:24). The re- 
demptive programme is clearly mediatorial in its nature and 
God is now approachable only through a go-between. 

I. The Mediatorial Problem. — The problem of the Medi- 
ator is the reconciliation of two estranged parties — God and 
man. Each is at enmity with the other; both must be pla- 
cated, that there may be a pact of reciprocal and hearty 
friendship. A something must be done that will satisfy God 
on the one hand and that will satisfy man on the other. What- 
ever is done must be genuine and not supposititious, conserv- 
ing all the rights of justice, truth, and honor, and compro- 
mising to neither. 

1. God is angry with the sinner, and for cause. It is no 
make-believe temper, no superficial display of a wrath which 
will subside under its own weight, no bluster and "bluff" of 
passion. It is righteous indignation which swells his bosom. 
His displeasure is ethical, and the whole moral nature of the 
Deity is stirred against the sinner. 

That primal saying in the Garden of Eden — "in the day 
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" — pledges the divine 



ioo Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Being to an attitude of hostility to man in case he disobeys ; 
the immediate expulsion of the first pair from the garden, 
under the curse of the divine displeasure, and the subsequent 
evils which have tracked the race from that day to the present 
time prove to the world that God did assume the hostile rela- 
tion towards the transgressing members of Adam's family — 
the attitude which the sinful situation logically and judicially 
required him to assume towards these creatures. In his reve- 
lation we find that "wrath" and its cognates and synonyms 
occur a very large number of times in describing God's atti- 
tude towards sinful men ; and it is always represented that a 
serious something has to be done to change that attitude into 
one of affection. 

"God is angry with the wicked every day" (Ps. 7:11). 
That is a categorical assertion of his displacency, and there 
is no sophistry which can convert this text into a declaration 
of the divine affection for the wicked. "Jacob have I loved, 
but Esau have I hated" (Rom. 9:13). Soften the word "hate" 
in this place as much as you will, and still the word represents 
God as displeased with Esau. "All their wickedness is in Gil- 
gal ; for there I hated them ; for the wickedness of their doings 
I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more" 
(Hos. 9:15). On account of their wickedness, God "hated" 
these Ephraimites, and drove them out of his house. It would 
indeed be a marvellous alchemy which could transmute these 
expressions and actions into manifestations of love and good- 
will. "The foolish shall not stand in thy sight; thou hatest 
all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak 
leasing; the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man" 
(Ps. 5:5, 6). "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all 
things which are written in the book of the law to do them" 
(Gal. 3:10). 

If God's attitude towards sinful men is one of compla- 
cency and affection, what reason can there be for the incarna- 
tion and crucifixion of his only begotten and well-beloved 
Son? Upon such a premise there could be no real necessity 
for the atonement. But upon the supposition that God is 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 101 

displeased with sinful men and feels righteously indignant 
towards them and ethically offended at them, then something 
as great and as radical as atonement must be done in order 
to create an ethical and righteous basis upon which he may 
clasp hands with them and be reconciled to them. 

Moral love and moral wrath are opposites. What the 
one opposes the other must smite. The one is awakened by 
righteousness, the other by sin. Whatever is holy must give 
the Deity pleasure ; and for the same reason whatever is 
unholy must give him displeasure. To hold otherwise would 
be to represent the divine character as untrue in its ener- 
gizings. That character is not only weak, but sadly blem- 
ished and utterly worthless, which is indiscriminate in its 
admirations and incapable of feeling moral wrath at the guilty 
and hateful. 

The entire gospel is predicated upon the fact that God 
is angry with the wicked and stands in need of being placated. 
Why preach to sinners to flee the wrath to come if the Deity 
is already complacent towards them? Why should sinners 
repent if God is already on good terms with them? The 
hypothesis would vacate the gospel of all its force and effec- 
tiveness. 

These things, heretofore regarded as obvious, must be 
emphasized because the sentimental theology is to-day rep- 
resenting God as being in a friendly attitude towards sinful 
men and stigmatizing the doctrine that God must be propiti- 
ated with atoning blood as barbaric in its conceptions and 
as a slanderous caricature of the character of man's Creator. 
The world is being taught that God is placent towards the 
race, and that the only need now is for the sinner to become 
placent toward God. The world is being taught that the only 
need of mediation is to persuade sinners to recognize the fact 
that God is himself placent and that the only desideratum is 
for them to repent. We are being told that there is in deed 
and truth but one party to this controversy, namely, man. 
We are told in the Revised Westminster Confession of the 
Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., that, "In the gospel God 



102 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

declares his love for the world and his desire that all men 
should be saved." That Church, in formal credal statement, 
asserts that God's attitude towards the whole world is one 
of Love. It has come to be quite popular to represent God 
as the Father of all men, and all men as the children of God ; 
and then to draw the swift and logical inference that the 
Deity stands in need of no bloody offering in order to appease 
his wrath and that no child of God need fear future endless 
punishment. If this were true — if God is not displeased — if 
he loves all men and desires their salvation — if he is the Father 
of all men and all men are his children — if this were the atti- 
tude of the divine Being towards his sinful creatures the prob- 
lem of mediation would be fundamentally so changed that the 
Mediator would have no other task imposed upon him but to 
placate sinners and induce them to turn to God for peace and 
acceptance. In other words, there would be but one offended 
party — man; and there would be but one desideratum; — the 
pacification of the estranged human creature. Then the whole 
of the gospel would consist in mere moral suasions exerted 
on the sinful mind. 

Any scheme of mediation, therefore, which proposes to 
meet the issues involved, ethically and fully and settle the 
controversy amicably and righteously must proceed upon the 
supposition that God has a true cause of complaint against 
his human creatures and that his character, and honor, and 
self-respect, and all his precious and manifold interests, must 
be adequately and genuinely protected. There can be no 
mediation which contemplates the least discrediting of Deity. 

(i) The divine justice must be satisfied. There is that 
in the divine character which insures that the "Judge of all 
the earth will do right." Could he, for one brief moment and 
in one single case, perpetrate an act of injustice at any point 
in all his moral universe he would forfeit his own self-respect 
and at the same time discharge all his creatures from the last 
obligation to honor and glorify him. It would be such a moral 
calamity as would wreck the moral administration of the uni- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 103 

verse. God must first be just, even if the heavens fall in conse- 
quence. 

It was but the dictate of common justice to declare, "the 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." God's anger is righteous indig- 
nation ; in truth and honor, the Deity ought to be offended ; 
it had been a moral weakness, a blasting blemish of character, 
had he not been; there is an ethical ground for his wrath, a 
moral "needs be" ; the sinner literally and truly deserves to 
be punished ; God ought to do what ought to be done. Not to 
inflict the penalty incurred would be to cheat justice and dis- 
honor law. This God cannot do and yet be consistent with 
himself. The supreme problem for the wisdom of the Medi- 
ator is, "How can God be just, and yet the justifier of the 
ungodly?" The human judge who dares justify the criminal 
in his earthly court is plastered with obloquy by all right- 
minded men. If God fails to be righteous, all the moral 
interests of the vast universe collapse. The law — "the soul 
that sinneth, it shall die" — is founded in correct ethics and 
must be respected and enforced by any being who has a cor- 
rect moral sense. 

(2) But the divine holiness must likewise be conserved 
by any proposition for reconciliation which can be respected 
by the Divine Being. There is in the heart of God a purity 
which renders any polluted creature disgusting in his sight. 
It must be so; it ought to be so; he would be unfit for his 
throne, and unworthy of creature-respect, were he incapable 
of feeling genuine aversion to the impure and unholy. It is 
one of the most praiseworthy and commanding attributes of 
his nature that "he cannot look upon sin with the least degree 
of allowance." Should he take to his bosom an unwashed 
creature, he would soil his own cleanliness and sully his own 
pure hands. Moreover the Deity cherishes his own purity 
and esteems it as the crowning perfection of his life and char- 
acter; before this attribute is soiled the universe ought to 
perish for ever. The moral world must have a spotless God, 
or no God at all. A tainted God would be alike intolerable to 
his own throne and to all his right-thinking people. Any 



104 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

proposition that God be reconciled to sinners by some slight 
or great compromising of his holiness is absolutely unthink- 
able ; and any mediator coming into his presence with such a 
proposition of temporizing with this attribute would be hurled 
out of his sight with infinite contempt and loathing. 

(3) It is equally obvious that any acceptable scheme of 
mediation must conserve the divine truthfulness. Jehovah 
cannot become a liar in order to save from hell any man who 
justly deserves such a fate. Truth is fundamental and basal 
in all human moral character ; it is infinitely more fundamental 
in the Supreme Ruler of this universe. He repeatedly de- 
scribes himself as the "Faithful and True God," and promises 
a lake of brimstone and fire for all who love and make lies. 
But this "true God," with all seriousness and formal solem- 
nity, looked his human creatures in the face and said, "In the 
day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die" ; and long 
years afterwards, when the world was reeking with iniquity, 
he calmly and earnestly repeated it, "The soul that sinneth, it 
shall die." His word has gone forth out of his mouth; he 
has sworn by his own awful and uncreated self; and his word 
cannot be broken. No proposition of reconciliation at the 
expense of his truth and honor can be tolerated by him until 
he is prepared to vacate his throne and retire from the com- 
mon respect of his intelligent creatures. Of course he will 
not, cannot, ought not, to sacrifice his truthfulness in order 
to save a man from hell who truly deserves that awful fate. 

(4) Any scheme of mediation, to be acceptable to the 
Ruler of this universe, must adequately and truly conserve 
the law of the kingdom. It is the sound judgment of men that 
the dignity and majesty of human law must be preserved at 
any and every expense, otherwise the whole attempt at gov- 
ernment must prove a dismal failure. But the law of God's 
kingdom, of which man is a transgressor, is an exponent of 
his will and a transcript of his moral nature — the formal ex- 
pression of the divine conscience. To treat lightly the infrac- 
tions of this law; to overslaugh its just claims for penalty; 
to set it aside to allow the guilty to go unsmitten; would be 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 105 

for God to perpetrate a compound outrage, (1) in himself 
violating and dishonoring his own law, and (2) in violating 
his own conscience. He would thus put a premium upon 
crime and challenge his intelligent universe to rebellion. He 
would make his own law the lever by which he would over- 
throw his own government. 

(5) Nor must we forget that God is the Moral Ruler of 
the created universe and must be jealous of his royal preroga- 
tives and the guardian of the stability and honor of his throne, 
not only for his own sake, but chiefly and especially for the 
sake of the welfare of his creatures. Any proposed scheme 
of reconciliation must keep in mind that the supreme interests 
of the moral universe are involved in any settlement of the 
issues which may be had. To save one sinner, or a thousand 
sinners, the divine administration cannot be jeopardized; else 
must the divine government itself perish, bringing into being 
all the imaginable horrors of a morally wrecked universe. 
"Righteousness must be laid for a line, and judgment for a 
plummet." The Deity owes it to himself, and in a sense to his 
subject creatures, to protect the universe from so awful a 
calamity. The Mediator must take care of the dignity, the 
majesty, the honor, the stability, the supremacy, the integrity, 
of the divine government for the sake of universal moral order. 
If the Judge of all the earth proves immoral or incompetent, 
the cause of righteousness for all the universe is finally and 
hopelessly lost. 

Any proposition, threfore, looking to the reconciliation of 
Jehovah and his disobedient human servants, must conserve, 
(1) the divine justice, (2) the divine holiness, (3) the divine 
truthfulness, (4) the divine law, and (5) the divine govern- 
ment. If wisdom cannot devise some method for protecting 
interests so vast and so fundamental, the whole project must 
be abandoned as impracticable and the sinner be left to his 
fate. The Mediator's first problem is to find an ethical plat- 
form upon which the Deity can stand and, in perfect con- 
sistency with his dignity and conscience and self-respect, 
clasp hands with the offending sinner. 



106 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

2. A second class of difficulties which confront any pro- 
posed scheme of mediation spring out of man's relation to 
this controversy between himself and his Maker. He is the 
party of the second part to this religious quarrel; he is truly 
offended at his Maker, and must be placated before he can 
be induced to enter into friendship and fellowship with his 
God. Any Mediator, therefore, has not completed his task 
of reconcilitation when he has made it possible for God to 
honorably clasp hands with the sinner; the "enmity of the 
carnal mind" must also be eradicated. The obstacles to the 
human side of the controversy are, (i) objective, and (2) 
subjective. 

(1) Objectively considered, the sinner has lost his right 
to come into the divine presence. He is a proscribed citizen, 
and has forfeited all his standing and privileges in the king- 
dom of God; he is a disinherited and discarded son, and has 
lost his privileges in the house and family of God. He is a 
dismissed servant, and has not now the privilege of resuming 
his services, even if he had a heart and a desire to resume 
labor in his Lord's employment. The conscience-smitten 
Adam fled from the Garden of Eden after his transgression, 
and a revolving sword of flame guarded the gateway to pre- 
vent his return to his Maker's paradise. If he is ever to be 
restored freely and cheerfully to his Maker, his biting con- 
science must be pacified, so that he will return of his own 
accord with joy and thanksgiving. Something must be done 
to the moral faculty of the refugee from justice before he can 
be expected to return to the court room of the Judge, which 
he has offended, and to the law which he has broken. Let 
the sinner's conscience remain unpurged of the sense of guilt 
and he will fly forever from the presence of his Maker; he is 
the last being in the universe into whose presence he desires 
to come. Any effective scheme of mediation must, therefore, 
provide for the rectification and pacification of the guilty 
conscience, which makes the sinner a cowardly but bitter 
hater of the Almighty. "I remembered God," says the Psalm- 
ist, "and was troubled." The thought of God ought to cheer 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 107 

and attract the human creature which was created to know 
and worship ; it has the reverse effect. The Mediator, to be 
effective, must do something to bring about a change of atti- 
tude on the part of the sinner towards his Maker from one of 
fear and hostility to one of trust and love. The right to come 
back must first of all be secured to him. 

(2) But certain subjective changes must also be wrought 
in the sinful man before he will desire to be reconciled to God. 
He is repelled by fear ; and that must be taken out of his heart. 
He is repelled by his appetences and ruling desires; he has 
no pleasure in the ways and precepts and ideals of his God ; 
but, on the contrary, he loves the things that are opposite, 
His moral judgment is so perverted that he "puts bitter for 
sweet, and sweet for bitter." Towards God, he is like the 
Ethiopian which cannot change his skin, or like the leopard 
which cannot change his spots, and has no desire to change 
them. The sinner loves and delights in his attitude of hos- 
tility to his Maker. Any Mediator, therefore, to be effective, 
must provide, in his programme of reconciliation, for the 
turning of the estranged human heart back to God. The sin- 
ner must be given the heart to return. 

If God alone were angry with the sinner, then the only 
problem of mediation would be to appease the divine Being; 
and if man alone were displacent towards God, then the only 
problem of mediation would be to placate the sinner towards 
his God. But if both parties are offended each with the other, 
then the mediatorial problem calls for some action which will 
propitiate each towards the other. This is the gigantic and 
complex task which confronted the incarnate Redeemer; he 
must do the thing which will render both parties to this reli- 
gious controversy reciprocally complacent and so bring them 
into fellowship with each other by a kind of spiritual affinity 
or gravitation. The problem is not one-sided. 

II. The Mediatorial Method. — But what mode of pro- 
cedure does the very nature of the mediatorial problem define 
for the Mediator to pursue in any effective attempt to solve 



108 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

it? Generically considered, there are but two ways in which 
enemies can be brought into peaceful and sympathetic fellow- 
ship with each other: (i) by intercession and (2) by expia- 
tion. 

(1) When it is sought to reconcile estranged persons by 
intercession, the peace-maker must negotiate until he can 
devise and present articles of agreement mutually acceptable 
to the parties affected. This method of effecting reconcilia- 
tions devolves it upon the arbitrator to draw up acceptable 
terms of peace, as when a cartel is arranged between warring 
states. If this were the method of Christ's mediation, all that 
would be required of him would be to negotiate an acceptable 
gospel and make public proclamation of the same for the 
acceptance of it by estranged parties — God and man. His 
whole mediatorial duty would be that of a prophet, announc- 
ing to this world the terms upon which God is willing to 
restore the sinner to his friendship. He would then have 
accomplished his entire mediatorial function when he had 
made the revelation of the divine mind to this world. By 
preaching, he would meet all the requirements of the case. 

Such a mode of mediation would not solve the problem 
for two reasons : (a) because the moral nature of God, as has 
been just shown above, demands that the cause of the es- 
trangement shall be wiped out of existence as the precondi- 
tion of God's being reconciled to the sinner without compro- 
mising his moral nature; and (b) because the sinner's moral 
nature has been so perverted, and rendered so averse to the 
Deity, that he will, if his nature be not fundamentally changed, 
infallibly reject any proposition of reconciliation which can 
be presented to him. No proposition can be made to the 
Deity, which could be acceptable to him, which did not pro- 
vide for the true and perfect erasure of the offence which has 
caused him to expel man from his heart and love;- and no 
proposition of reconciliation could command the assent of the 
sinner so long as his present views and feelings remain un- 
changed and unsanctified. The mediatorial problem, therefore, 
is such that mediation cannot be effective by intercession ; no 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 109 

degree or sort of mere entreaty can avail to placate God 
towards the sinner or placate the sinner towards God. 

(2) A second mode of mediating between estranged par- 
ties is by expiation. This course devolves it upon the mediator 
to make peace between the estranged parties by doing the 
thing which blots out of existence the offending fact; bona fide 
reparation must be made for the injury done and for the 
offence given. Two warring states may come to peace with 
each other because the casus belli has become a zero ; two 
men, at outs with each other over money, may become friends 
by virtue of the fact that the money, about which they quar- 
reled, has been paid, and the debt no longer exists to divide 
them; two friends, parted because of the injury done to the 
honor of one by the other, may become restored to each other 
by virtue of the fact that ample and true reparation, in the 
form of apology, has been made for the offence. The distinc- 
tion between mediation by way of intercession and mediation 
by a mode of expiation and reparation is perfectly true and 
apprehensible. 

It is quite obvious that this is the only mode in which 
the mediation of Christ in the controversy between God and 
man can be made effective. The separating thing must be 
annihilated before these two will ever clasp hands. God will 
be placated only when the offending thing — sin — has been 
truly put out of his field of vision; and the sinner will be 
placated only when the offending thing — sin — has been put 
entirely out of his heart and life. But bring about this con- 
dition — a condition in which there is in the sinner nothing 
offensive to God and nothing in God offensive to the sinner, 
but, on the contrary, there is something in the sinner which 
makes him altogether attractive to God and something in God 
which makes him gloriously attractive to the sinner — bring 
about this condition of view and feeling between these two 
parties, and then God will embrace the sinner with delight 
and the sinner will embrace his God in a transport of ineffable 
joy. To accomplish this, no bare intercession, no mere reve- 
lation of gospel terms, is adequate; mediation must be by a. 



no Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

mode of expiation. The Mediator must crucify and bury the 
offence itself. "And you, being dead in your sins and the un- 
circumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with 
him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the 
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and took it out 
of the way, nailing it to his cross ; and having spoiled princi- 
palities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumph- 
ing over them in it" (Col. 2:13-15). The sufferings, death 
and crucifixion of our Lord cannot be interpreted as a mere 
incident in his mediation, but they must be construed as the 
central feature and fundamental fact in all his mediatorial 
work. To construe his advent and mission into this world as 
chiefly and rulingly revelatory, and to the minimizing of his 
sacrificial death, is to disembowel his entire mediatorial under- 
taking. 

The atonement which the Redeemer made in the exercise 
of his mediatorial office does three things: (1) it propitiates an 
angry God; (2) it expiates the guilt of human sin; (3) 
it impetrates the Holy Spirit, who unburdens the human 
conscience, regenerates the human heart, and sanctifies the 
human life and transforms it into something lovely in the 
eyes of the Deity. This no mere negotiation could effect. 

III. Mediatorial Qualifications. — To mediate in the ca- 
pacity of an expiationist, whoever undertakes this office must 
be peculiarly qualified ; he must be some unique being in his 
constitution, in order that he may perform functions appar- 
ently the most contradictory. He must be so qualified that he 
can do three things at once: (1) die, (2) live, (3) yet unify 
both. 

(1) He must be human in order to die — human in order 
to die at all — human in order to die a human death, the sort 
demanded of the offender. "Forasmuch then as the children 
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took 
part of the same; that through death he might destroy him 
that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver 
them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime sub- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience hi 

ject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of 
angels ; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore 
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his breth- 
ren, that he might be a faithful and merciful high priest in 
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins 
of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, 
he is able to succor them that are tempted." (Heb. 2 114-18). He 
must be flesh and blood, in order to lay his life on the altar of 
sacrifice to satisfy the divine justice and turn away the wrath of 
God. Through all the Old Testament dispensation the place of 
Jehovah's worship had run red with blood — the typical blood of 
bulls and goats. The mediator must be human to furnish the 
blood for which outraged justice and violated law ceaselessly 
called. He must be human in order to die. 

(2) But he must be equally divine in order to live. No 
mere human being could lay down his life under the sentence 
of violated law and then take it up again. "Therefore doth 
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might 
take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down 
of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have powder 
to take it again. This commandment have I received of my 
Father" (Jno. 10:17-18). If he must be human to go down 
into the penal grave, he must be divine to come forth out of 
the grave. If he must be human in order to give up life, he 
must be divine in order to take up life again. If he must be 
human in order to go under the law, he must be divine in 
order to come back from under the law. If he must be 
human in order to go under the law, he must be divine 
in order to be above law and not himself under obligation to 
that law. He must be human in order to suffer the penalty 
of sin and bring in the righteous obedience which the first 
Adam ought to have brought in but failed to do; he must 
be divine in order not to perish eternally in the undertaking 
but triumph over death, hell and the grave. 

(3) But he must also be one person in order to unify 
his mediatorial task. A mere man could have died a human 



112 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

death and a mere divinity could have lived in spite of death; 
but the redemptive problem required to be unified — the same 
person must both live and die at one and the same time. 
None but a divine-human person, therefore, in his metaphysi- 
cal constitution was equal to the solution of the mediatorial 
problem by way of atonement and expiation. He must be 
human to pay the penalty in kind; he must be divine in order 
to pay the penalty in degree; he must be unipersonal in order 
to do both in the same act. It would take a mere finite being 
all eternity to pay the penalty in finite instalments; it would 
take an infinite being a limited period of time to pay that 
penalty in full; it would take a unipersonal being to pay that 
penalty at once. For a man who could pay but one cent a 
century to cancel a hundred billion dollar debt it would re- 
quire incalculable time ; but for a man possessed of a thousand 
billions of dollars to cancel the debt it would require but a brief 
moment of time for him to draw and sign an adequate check. 
For the sinner to pay his debt to broken law and at the same 
time pay his debt to unbroken law would require more time 
than in all eternity; but to satisfy both the penal and precep- 
tive aspects of the moral law, Jesus, a divine-human person 
has only to cry, "It is finished, and yield up the ghost/' and 
then take up his life and rise from the dead, and the trans- 
action is completed. The very nature of the mediatorial prob- 
lem, therefore, calls for a divine-human person to fill the medi- 
atorial office successfully. 

The Mediator, then, must be, (i) human in order to die a 
human death, the sort of death demanded by the divine 
justice, and (2) he must be divine in order to impart to that 
death an infinite value, and so make it worthy of being ac- 
cepted as a bona fide payment of the debt, and (3) he must be 
unipersonal in order that the transaction may have unity and 
effectiveness. It is obvious, therefore, that the mediatorial 
problem defines the constitution and nature of the Mediator. 

IV. Mediatorial Offices. — The mediatorial duties as de- 
fined by the mediatorial problem require that the Mediator 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 113 

between God and man shall exercise three offices: (1) that of 
prophet, (2) that of priest, and (3) that of king. 

(1) He must be a prophet, in order to reveal the plan of 
reconciliation agreed upon in the council of eternity when 
the covenant of grace was entered into between the Father 
and the Son; to teach the world what would otherwise have 
remained an undiscovered and impenetrable mystery; to de- 
clare to the world the redemptive programme. 

(2) He must be .a priest, in order, by his atonement, to 
bring into being the essential facts — the evangelical con- 
tents — of the prearranged plan of reconciliation ; for the effec- 
tiveness of the schedule depended upon its provisions being 
executed at the altar of sacrifice ; he must exercise the priest's 
office in order to wait upon the altar of redemption, because 
the things provided for therein could not be brought into 
existence by mere revelation. Revelation shows what was to 
be done in order to save sinners; atonement accomplishes the 
prescribed things and translates the programme into historic 
fact. 

(3) He must likewise be a king, in order to administer 
the executed plan, giving it concrete application in the lives 
and experiences of its beneficiaries; in order to send the Spirit 
and through him carry the project to completion in the con- 
summated kingdom of glory. As a Prophet, Christ must 
reveal the plan of reconciliation; as a Priest, he must execute 
that plan at the altar of sacrifice, substituting his obedience 
and death for the obedience and death of those whom he 
represented; and as a King, he must administer and give 
practical efficacy to the revealed and executed plan of media- 
tion. 

V. Mediatorial Estates. — To execute such a programme 
of mediation, it devolves upon him who undertakes it to un- 
dergo two experiences: (1) a series of experiences which are 
deeply humiliating to him and (2) a series of subsequent ex- 
periences which greatly exalt him and honor him. 



114 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

(i) In the execution of his task, he must submit first to 
a period of humiliation, in which his person must be de- 
graded and afflicted with many indignities, in order that he 
may make of himself a vicarious sacrifice for the expiation 
of the human offence and the honorable propitiation of the 
anger of the Deity. This our Redeemer did. "Being in the 
form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God : 
but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the 
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men : and 
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and 
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross/' 
(Phil. 2:6-8). If the Saviour could have been spared this 
excruciating degradation and at the same time have carried 
out the programme of mediation and reconciliation he would 
have been exempted from the humiliation. But the road to 
the goal lay along this valley of shame and misery, and he 
did not decline to walk it. 

(2) But this period of humiliation must logically and 
necessarily be succeeded by a period of surpassing exaltation, 
in order for the Mediator to be successful and triumphant. 
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him 
a name above every name : that at the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
and things under the earth ; and that every tongue should 
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father." (Phil. 2:9-11). It was a tremendous stoop from un- 
incarnate deity down to incarnate deity; it was a tremendous 
ascent from earth to heaven. 



CHAPTER X. 

Christ: The Prophet 

I. Definition. — The word prophet etymologically signifies 
a spokesman, a message-bearer. He does not represent him- 
self and deliver his own ideas ; he is, on the other hand, but 
the mouth-piece of another. In religious literature a prophet 
is a person whom God uses as a medium of communicating 
with the world. He may be inspired by the Holy Spirit when 
he is the infallible organ for delivering the divine revelation 
to the human race ; or he may be uninspired when he is the 
repeater and interpreter of that infallible revelation, a preacher 
of the Holy Scriptures. He may be the bearer of a message 
concerning future events when he is the foreteller of things 
which are to come to pass. He may be gifted with extra- 
ordinary powers of insight and foresight when he is a seer 
with penetration and vision and intuition — a prophet by ac- 
commodation and metaphor, because he can see beyond the 
majority of his fellow-men. But however used the word never 
loses entirely the aroma of its etymology. A prophet is al- 
ways a message-bearer; pre-eminently, God's message-bearer; 
and generally God thinks enough of his message to have it 
truly delivered to those for whom it was intended. The whole 
Bible is the product of prophecy, and the secondary prophets 
of religion, the preachers, are without excuse for blundering in 
repeating this message to the world. Thorough preparation 
for the office, diligent and conscientious study of the text of 
the message, profound reflection upon its import, coupled with 
the promised illumination of the Holy Spirit, is enough to 
secure substantial accuracy in its delivery to this world. 
These secondary prophets of the gospel are always second- 
hand message-bearers. 

II. Purpose. — Ours is a sinful world, morally blind and 
religiously stupid : its superlative need is for a redemptive 



n6 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

revelation, a message of salvation from God to the blind lead- 
ers of the blind. Had the race continued in its pristine purity 
each man would have had unobscured vision and could have 
been his own informant about God, about man, about the 
world, about duty, about religion, about all things, and would 
not have stood in need of any prophet-teacher to bear mes- 
sages from God for the edification of his life : every man 
would have been in direct personal communication with the 
Deity. But being a fallen creature, and judicially excluded 
from intercourse with his Maker, he now needs a prophet, 
sent from God, to tell him about God, about sin, about the 
Saviour, about the plan of redemption, about grace and the 
sanctifying Spirit — to give him the information necessary for 
a sinful being to find his way back into the fellowship and 
communion of his Creator and Lord. The mission of the 
primary prophets was to make this gospel communication, 
speaking in God's name and upon God's authority, and the 
mission of these secondary prophets (the preachers) is to tell 
over and over again to each generation the old story of God's 
purposes and plans and provisions for the restoration of ban- 
ished sinners to his fellowship and love. In the heavenly 
consummation of this scheme of grace, the saints will no 
longer stand in need of the prophets' services, for they will 
then "see as they are seen, and know as they are known" : 
once more like God, they will enjoy the beatific vision. But 
now and here, under these obscurations and perversions of 
sin and sinners, they need a gospel message, and the prophet 
is the divinely ordained bearer of that saving message. 

III. Christ, the Prophet. — Throughout the Old Testa- 
ment dispensation, God from time to time raised up prophets 
like Moses and Samuel, and David and Isaiah, and other 
greater and lesser men, whom he made the inspired organs 
of communicating his saving messages to this sinful world. 
But these were all but forerunners of the Angel of the Cove- 
nant, the Chief Messenger of them all. In the fullness of 
time, in the ripeness of the hour, God sent his only begotten 
Son into the world as the Prophet of Redemption. "This is 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 117 

of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world" 
(Jno. 6:14). "Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty 
in deed and word before God and all the people'' (Luke 
24:19). 

IV. Characteristics. — As a Prophet Christ is absolutely 
original and unique. His didactic attributes lift him to a top- 
less mount of vision, whence he has an intuition of the whole 
mind of God and a perception of all the contents of space and 
time — a seership which is at once perfect and unapproachable. 

1. He possessed the consciousness of God. He came out 
of the bosom of the Godhead, and "in him dwelt all the ful- 
ness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). "In the beginning 
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word 
was God" (Jno. 1:1). "And the Word was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of 
the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth" 
(Jno. 1:14). "His dear Son . . . who is the image of the 
invisible God" (Col. 1:13,15). "The glorious gospel of Christ, 
who is the image of God" (2 Cor. 4:4). "I and my Father 
are one" (Jno. 10:30). Such utterances show the complete and 
intimate familiarity of the Message-bearer with the Message- 
sender : their minds coincide : this Prophet possesses the 
thought of God by virtue of the fact that he is Incarnate 
God. "No man knows the mind of the Father but the Son, 
and no one knows the Son but the Father" (Matt. 11:27). 
To all other prophets the prophecy must be revealed; but this 
Prophet apprehends the whole mind of God by scientia 
visionis, by direct and immediate intuition. 

2. Christ was the Revelation of God. He was not simply 
the medium of that revelation as was Moses and other human 
prophets, but he was himself that revelation : the relation be- 
tween the two, between Christ and the revelation, was the 
relation of absolute identity. If the gospel be translated into 
a person, that person would be Christ; and if Christ were 
transformed into a book, that book would be the gospel : 
Christ is the personal Word of God, and the gospel is the 



n8 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

impersonal Word of God. The Prophet and the Prophecy 
coincide. He was "the Word" (Jno. i :i) ; he was "the Truth" 
(Jno. 14:6) ; "Wisdom" (Prov. 8) ; "the Light" (Jno. 1:4; 9:5; 
1:9; Luke 2:32). "Christ in whom are hid all the treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). Christ was not simply 
the bearer of God's message to a sinful world, but he was 
himself the very message : he was not merely the Preacher, 
but he was the Sermon itself; he was not only the Instrumen- 
tality of divine Revelation, but he was the concrete Illustra- 
tion of that Revelation : he was not merely the Teacher, but 
he was the very Lesson itself; the relation between him and 
the Gospel is the relation of identity — he is the gospel. To 
preach the gospel is to preach Christ and to preach Christ 
is to preach the gospel. He was not only a Prophet, but 
he was also the Prophecy itself. 

3. As a Prophet, Christ was infallible. He could not 
make a mistake in delivering the mind of God to this sinful 
world, because his mind was the mind of God ; he could not 
blunder, because he himself was the message, and any utter- 
ance he might make, any deed he might perform, would be 
but an exponent of what he was. Human prophets like Isaiah 
(Isa. 6) were abashed in the presence of deity when receiv- 
ing communications and commissions from him whose glory 
was insufferable : Moses veiled his face, and the people 
quaked at Sinai, and the earth trembled at the voice of the 
Lord ; angels put their faces in the dust, and the cherubim 
throw their wings before their eyes ; but Christ never shows 
the least, trepidation or embarrassment of feeling in the pres- 
ence of God. This remarkable phenomenon can be rationally 
accounted for only on the supposition that he was co-equal 
with the Father in his knowledge of the secrets of the adora- 
ble and unapproachable Trinity. "All things are delivered 
unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son but 
the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the 
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him" (Matt. 
11:27). "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the 
Father" (Jno. 10:15). "Now we are sure that thou knowest 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 119 

all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by 
this we believe that thou earnest forth from God" (Jno. 16:30). 
"Lord, thou knowest all things" (Jno. 21:17). "He knew 
all men, and needed not that any should testify of man ; for 
he knew what was in man" (Jno. 2:24, 25). "The word which 
ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me" (Jno. 14 : 
24). Thus do the Scriptures present Christ to the world as 
an omniscient and inerrant Prophet, who never bungles his 
message, but always sees truly and speaks correctly as the 
Spokesman for God. 

4. As a Prophet Christ spake with dogmatic authority. 
He did not utter himself as a private person ; he delivered 
himself as the official spokesman of deity ; he did not argue ; 
he asserted ; he did not debate ; he pronounced. Upon all 
questions of faith and duty he quietly, but firmly, assumed 
to himself the prerogative and the intelligence and the author- 
ity to speak with dogmatic positiveness and command ac- 
ceptance and obedience upon the pain of eternal death. Above 
him there was no higher source of truth; beyond him there 
was no superior court of appeal. The last reason why any- 
thing was true was the fact that it rested upon his authority; 
the superlative reason why anything was right was the fact 
that he so declared. He promulgated a scheme of doctrine 
which rested upon no other basis than his word and he pre- 
scribed a course of conduct which was founded upon no other 
law but his will. "Verily, verily, I say unto you" — and that 
ends all debate, and settles all controversy. "Thus saith the 
Lord" — and man's highest privilege is to believe and his 
supremest duty is to obey. He must commit his present 
and eternal interests into the hands of this Prophet and be- 
lieve that they will be cared for with efficiency and fidelity, 
simply upon his naked word. When he finished his match- 
less Sermon on the Mount, "the people were astonished at 
his doctrine : for he taught them as one having authority, 
and not as the scribes" (Matt. 7:29). When he spake in the 
synagogue at Capernaum, "they were astonished at his doc- 



120 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

trine : for he taught them as one that had authority, and not 
as the scribes" (Mark 1:22). 

5. As a Prophet Christ was sup ernatur ally accredited. 
He did not come before a world of rational and intelligent 
human beings, making the irrational and absurd demand 
upon them that they should receive him as an inspired, in- 
fallible and dogmatic authority upon all questions of faith 
and duty, without a shred of proof to support such a pretense 
and demand; but, on the contrary, recognizing that it is a 
law of mind that evidence is the measure of belief, he pro- 
duced his credentials, and asked that he be accepted upon 
the ground that his credentials were sound and adequate to 
support his pretension. He was a Prophet "mighty in word 
and deed" : his "deeds" stood related to his "words" as the 
proof stands related to the cause. Nicodemus said to him, 
"Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God : 
for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except 
God be with him" (Jno. 3:2). "Since the world began was it 
not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born 
blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing" 
(Jno. 9:32, 33). Jesus himself concurred in these judgments, 
for he said, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me 
not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works ; 
that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and 
I in him" (Jno. 10:37, 38). "But I have greater witness than 
that of John ; for the works which the Father hath given me 
to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that 
the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which 
hath sent me, hath borne witness of me" (Jno. 5:36). "Be- 
lievest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in 
me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; 
but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Be- 
lieve me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me : or 
else believe me for the very works sake" (Jno. 14:10, 11). 
"If I had not done among them the works which none other 
man did, they had not had sinned; but now hath they both 
seen and hated both me and the Father" (Jno. 15:24). Thus 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 121 

this Prophet came into the world with miracles strung around 
his neck as the credentials of his supernatural commission and 
as constituting a competent and credible basis upon which 
men could stand and rationally and intelligently accept him 
and his teachings. Pretending to more than any other 
Prophet, he offered a higher testimony than any other : he felt 
the need of such superior proof, and he satisfied it. 

V. Mode. — "Christ executeth the office of a prophet in 
revealing to the Church, in all ages, by his Spirit and word, 
the whole will of God in all things concerning edification and 
salvation" (Larger Catechism, Q. 43). As a Prophet Christ 
has employed two agencies in communicating his message 
as God's Spokesman to this world : (a) the Spirit and (b) the 
Bible. These two are related to each other as the power 
and the form — the power is the Spirit and the form is the 
Bible. To bring out this matter in larger detail, the propheti- 
cal life of Christ must be divided into four periods: (1) the 
Pre-incarnate Period, (2) the Incarnate Period, (3) the Post- 
incarnate Period, and (4) the Heavenly Period. 

1. Pre-incarnate Period. — From the creation of the world 
to the advent of the Redeemer there were, dispersed through- 
out the Old Testament, sundry visions and dreams and visible 
manifestations of God, making communications to the world. 
These appearances of Jehovah to individuals before the flood, 
to the patriarchs and to Moses after the flood, to the prophets 
of the United Kingdom of Israel and to those of the divided 
kingdoms of Judah and Israel, were a true discharge of the 
prophetical office by the Mediator. They were harbingers of 
the incarnation, adumbrations of the clearer exercise of that 
office when he should stand upon the earth clothed in human 
flesh, anticipatory temporary manifestations of the Saviour: 
all Old Testament theophanies were but preliminary epiph- 
anies. But throughout the Old Testament period Christ prin- 
cipally exercised his prophetical function not directly and per- 
sonally, but indirectly through the agency of that class of 
religious persons who were well-known as "prophets." They 



122 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

were his spokesmen, and the medium through whom he taught 
the mind of his Father. "The Spirit of Christ" was in these 
persons, "who prophesied of the grace that should come," 
and "who testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ" (i 
Pet. 1:10-12). It was by this Spirit that Christ "preached 
unto those that were disobedient in the days of Noah ;" and 
it was Noah who was "the preacher of righteousness" who 
was in that day employed as the vehicle of Christ's prophetical 
office; and as result of the rejection of that prophecy, so de- 
livered by the Spirit through Noah, the ante-diluvian world 
was at the moment Peter wrote, and will be forever more, 
"spirits in prison" (1 Pet. 3 :io„ 20). During this period Christ 
exercised his prophetical office partly directly and person- 
ally, but chiefly indirectly and mediately through "the proph- 
ets," who had authority and significance only as they were his 
mouthpieces. 

2. Incarnate Period. — In the fulness of time, when the 
Son of God became man, he exercised his prophetical function 
directly, teaching the will of God by the words of his own 
mouth, showing it by the deeds of his hands and illustrating 
it by his own example. To the "disciples" and the "apostles" 
and those who heard him teaching in the synagogues and 
by the seaside and in other places he delivered his divine 
messages with his own lips. He was then in his own person 
the "Counsellor" (Isa. 9:6); the "Witness" (Isa. 55:4); the 
"Interpreter" (Job 33:23); the "Apostle" (Heb. 3:1); the 
"Word" (Jno. 1:1); the "Truth" (Jno. 14:6); the "Light" 
(Jno. 1:4). "We know that thou art true, and teachest the 
way of God in truth" (Matt. 22:16). "Jesus went about Gali- 
lee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel" 
(Matt. 4:23). "I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple" 
(Matt. 26:55). But in all his prophesyings and teachings 
and preachings he was under the influence of that Spirit which 
descended upon him at his baptism, and abode upon him 
throughout all his earthly ministry, leading and directing him 
in all the exercise of his prophetical office. The especial pe- 
culiarity about this period was that he was both the teacher 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 123 

and the incarnation and illustration of the lesson at the same 
time. 

3. Post-incarnate Period. — After his ascension into glory, 
and session on the right hand of God, Christ continues to exercise 
his prophetical office : he is still teaching the world the will 
of God. He first employed certain apostles who were in- 
spired by his Spirit and caused to write down God's com- 
munications to men with full and infallible accuracy. He then 
instituted a Church and entrusted to that Church this Reve- 
lation to be preserved in its integrity, and over this Church, 
with its precious treasure, he exercises a constant providential 
oversight and care. He also calls into his service ministers, 
whom he especially commissions to expound and teach the 
contents of this revelation to all mankind. From his throne 
in glory our Redeemer is exercising his prophetical function 
today not directly and personally, but by the ministry of his 
Church. "Go ye, and teach all nations" (Matt. 28:19, 20). 
"The Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth; he shall 
glorify me, for he shall take of mine and show it unto you" 
(Jno. 15:13, 14). Having ascended up into heaven after 
launching his Church, and being seated upon his mediatorial 
throne, the Mediator "gave some to be apostles, and some 
to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some to be 
pastors and teachers : for the perfecting of the saints, for the 
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" 
(Eph. 4:11, 12). By his Spirit and word, through the in- 
strumentality of the Church, is the mode in which the 
ascended and reigning Lord is today teaching the will of 
God to this world in the discharge of his prophetical office. 
None are now directly taught of Christ ; none are directly 
taught of the Holy Ghost: the whole revelation is in the 
Bible: we may invoke the Spirit's illumination, but not his 
inspiration. 

4. Heavenly Period. — Out before the Church is heaven 
and the state of perfect glory : there Christ is still the teacher 
of all the glorified saints, and will, to the end of eternity, be 



124 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

their religious instructor and informant. No man will ever 
get independent of the instruction and guidance of his Saviour. 
But in heaven the people of God will be granted a heavenly- 
vision, in which they will see much immediately which they 
get here only mediately and in some second-hand, though 
perfectly trustworthy, manner. The last stage in the exer- 
cise of the Lord's didactic office in behalf of his saints will 
be the granting to them of the "beatific vision," in which 
they "shall see him face to face," shall "see him as he is," 
"shall know even as they are known," when "faith shall be 
swallowed up in sight." "Beloved, now are we the sons 
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we 
know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for 
we shall see him as he is" (i Jno. 3:2). "And though after 
my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I 
see God : whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall 
behold, and not another" (Job. 19:26, 2j). "Thou wilt show 
me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy 
right hand there are pleasures for ever more" (Ps. 16:11). 
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matt. 
5:8). "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then 
face to face : now I know in part ; but then shall I know even 
as I am known" (1 Cor. 13:12). 

VI. Product. — The product of the prophetical office of 
Christ is technically called the Gospel, the evangel, the good 
news of salvation, that scheme of saving and sanctifying 
truth which is recorded in the sacred Scriptures. 

The old contrast — The Law and The Gospel — is a valid 
distinction. The law was primarily revealed in the moral 
constitution of man, so that, at the first, he had but interpret 
his own conscience and follow the promptings of his own 
moral nature. The purpose of that law was to reveal human 
Duty; to give to man a Rule and Standard of moral conduct 
and behaviour. It was an adequate rule of life for man in 
innocency, for man as he was created. But the effect of the 
fall was to so upset his moral nature that he could not see 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 125 

clearly his Duty and to leave him utterly without heart and 
disposition to do his Duty. 

In the exercise of his prophetical function Christ repub- 
lished this Moral Law, summarizing it in the Ten Command- 
ments. The purpose of this republication was to show man 
his sin, to uncover to the human creature the wide chasm 
between the is and the ought to be of his life. It was a 
"schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." It was, therefore, pref- 
atory to, propaedeutic of, the gospel. It was the moral prom- 
ise, the moral situation, to which the gospel was to be ad- 
dressed. It was the logical and natural introduction of the 
gospel. 

The purpose of the Gospel is not to disclose human Duty 
and human Sin — that has been done by the Law. But the 
design of the Gospel is to show sinful men how they can yet 
become obedient to the Law and fulfill duty and destiny — 
not to void the Law, but to magnify it and make it honorable. 
The Gospel is remedial and corrective. The law is for inno- 
cent men; the Gospel is for sinful men. The Law is for 
capable persons; the gospel is for incapable persons. The 
law is for human beings predisposed to obedience ; the Gospel 
is for men indisposed to obedience. "We are not under law, 
but under grace." 

The chief end, then, of the prophetical office of Christ was 
to reveal the Gospel ; the republication of the law by the Re- 
deemer was to "prepare the case" — to show the appropriate 
"setting" for the Gospel. 



CHAPTER XL 

Christ: The Priest 

The Scriptures dogmatically declare that Christ was a 
Priest. "Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our pro* 
fession, Christ Jesus" (Heb. 3:1). "Seeing then that we havt 
a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the 
Son of God" (Heb. 4:14). "Thou art a priest for ever after 
the order of Melchisedec" (Heb. 5:6). "We have such a 
high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the 
Majesty in the heavens" (Heb. 8:1). "Christ being come an 
high priest of good things to come" (Heb. 9:11). "A high 
priest over the house of God" (Heb. 10:21). The entire 
Epistle to the Hebrews is a treatise upon, and an interpreta- 
tion of, the priesthood of Christ; but in addition to the 
specific teachings of this particular book, priestly terms, as 
descriptive of one aspect of his work of mediation, are dif- 
fused everywhere throughout both the Old and the New 
Testaments, rendering it impossible for any one to deny the 
fact of his priesthood without tearing out of the Bible terms 
and phrases and figures which are interwoven in the very 
warp and woof of divine revelation. The language of the 
Old Testament is everywhere the language of the altar; the 
figure of the New Testament is everywhere the figure of 
the "Lamb slain." The priestly concepts are everywhere and 
throughout embroidered in the very texture of revelation. 

I. Definition. — A priest is that minister of religion who 
offers worship through the medium of sacrifice. He must 
have an altar, a victim, and a ritual. The Apostle gives an 
ample definition of a priest in this language : "For every 
high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in 
things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and 
sacrifices for sins : who can have compassion on the ignorant, 
and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 127 

is compassed with infirmities" (Heb. 5:1, 2). A priest then 
is, (a) taken from among men, (b) ordained for men in things 
pertaining to God, (c) that he may offer for sins, (d) with 
compassion for the wayward." "For every high priest is 
ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices ; wherefore it is of ne- 
cessity that this man have somewhat also to offer" (Heb. 
8:3). "Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made 
like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faith- 
ful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make recon- 
ciliation for the sins of the people" (Heb. 2:17). "Every 
priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the 
sacrifices" (Heb. 10:11). Generically a priest is a minister 
of religion ; but specifically he is that minister of religion who 
offers sacrifices for sin : this is his differentiating and definitive 
mark. A priest without a victim is an empty-handed min- 
ister of religion ; a priest without an altar is a minister with- 
out the necessary tool of his' office; a priest without a ritual 
is a minister of religion without a formula for his services. 
The peculiar, distinguishing, and segregating characteristic 
of the priest is his sacrifice for sin. 

II. Purpose. — The function of the priest is distinctly 
different from the function of the prophet. There is a need 
for them both in any system of religion. The prophet is 
that intermediary through whom God declares his will to the 
world ; the priest is that intermediary between God and man 
who atones for the offence of man, and renders him accepta- 
ble to God. Unfallen man stood in need of some sort of 
prophet, but, in addition, sinful man stands in need of a priest 
to make atonement for his offence. The need of a Prophet 
is grounded in human ignorance; the need of a Priest is 
grounded in human sinfulness ; the need of a King is grounded 
in human dependence. The function of the priest, since the 
fact of sin is a cardinal fact of man's history, is chiefly and 
necessarily that of expiation and propitiation — the propitia- 
tion of the deity by expiating the offence committed. Since 
"every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, it 
is of necessity that Jesus Christ have somewhat to offer" 



128 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

(Heb. 8:3). If man had remained holy and unfallen there 
would have been no place for a priest in his history : but now 
that he is estranged from God and morally offensive to his 
Maker, the superlative need of his soul is not, primarily, a 
doctrine but an atonement — a something which will extin- 
guish his offence and reinstate him in the favour of his Maker. 
Something must be done for a sinner that will appease divine 
wrath and reconcile the offended deity. The purpose and 
office of the priest and the sacrifice in religion is piacular. 

(1) From the dawn of sacred history, the first and every- 
where prevailing mode of access and acceptability to God was 
through the priest and his sacrifice. Cain and Abel in the 
beginning of the race's history offered sacrifices to God — the 
one, fruits of his fields and the other, the firstling of his 
flock; God accepted the bloody offering and rejected the un- 
bloody sacrifice. At the assuagement of the deluge, "Noah 
builded an altar unto the Lord ; and took of every clean beast, 
and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the 
altar. And Jehovah smelled a sweet savour" (Gen. 8:20). 
The first thing Abraham did on entering the land of Canaan 
was to "build an altar and call upon the name of the Lord" 
(Gen. 12:7, 8). The other patriarchs, and that isolated char- 
acter known as Melchisedek, imitated his example. Job, 
a patriarch somewhere between the deluge and Abraham, as 
the head of his family "offered burnt offerings according to 
the number of them all" (Job. 1:5). Then the Mosaic dis- 
pensation had an elaborate sacrificial system for the expia- 
tion of the greater and lesser offences of the Israelite. 

(2) That the sacrifice was a poena vie aria is proved by 
the ritual of the altar-service prescribed under the Mosaic 
economy. The essential parts in the formula for the bloody 
animal sacrifices were, (a) the presentation of some regu- 
lation victim at the altar by the worshipper, (b) the imposi- 
tion of hands upon the victim, symbolically imputing' to it 
the sin of the worshipper, (c) the slaughter of the sin-bearing 
victim, in token of the surrender of the worshipper's life for 
his offence against God (d) the disposition of the blood ac- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 129 

cording to the ritual so as to indicate that the blood of the 
victim had been accepted in lieu of the blood of the wor- 
shipper, and then (e) the burning of the flesh according to 
a prescription, to show that the whole offence had been typi- 
cally wiped out and extinguished from the sight of God. 
The elaborate and minute Mosaic ritual becomes almost 
childish upon any other theory than the traditional view, 
namely, that it symbolically expiated the guilt of the offender 
and placated an angry deity. A prophet is necessary to teach 
the world the will of God, but a priest is required to atone 
for the sin of the world which has already offended against 
God. 

(3) That the teleology of sacrifices as given is the true 
import of all such offerings is proved by a reference to all 
heathen religions. These heathen religions, however gross 
or however refined and elevated they may be, are but collapsed 
and perverted forms of the true religion which God prima- 
rily revealed to our fallen race : and all these heathen forms 
construe the deity as angry and in need of placation ; and 
sacrifices and offerings are made, in all sorts of crude forms 
and with all sorts of absurd and superstitious and offensive 
rituals, for the purpose of appeasing his wrath and propitia- 
ting his favour. The blood of a thousand victims pouring 
from heathen basins and the countless ablutions made by 
heathen priests are but so many testimonies derived from the 
traditional history of the fallen race in proof of the proposi- 
tion that the religion of sacrifice is the religion of a sinful 
world : man cannot think of approaching into the divine pres- 
ence except he bring the blood of some atoning sacrifice with 
him. It is not the prophet, but the priest, which officiates 
at the altars of the earth, executing the ritual of atonement 
victims, real and effective or imaginary and worthless, for 
the purpose for which they are bound to the horns of the 
altar and have their life-blood drawn from their veins. All 
these things but point to Jesus who was at once the High 
Priest and the Victim of the true religion of salvation : the 
Mosaic system being a true and correct typification of this 



130 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

saving sacrifice of Christ and all the heathen abortions and 
abominations being vain and despairing illustrations of the 
world's crying need of the true sacrifices of Christ and of 
its silly, pitiful and monstrously absurd efforts to find him 
whom their souls need without the guidance of divine reve- 
lation. Revelation teaches and the frantic efforts of a foolish 
heathendom teach that the only effective religion for a sinful 
man is the religion of the priest and the sacrifice. 

(4) That the priestly oblation is a genuine poena vicaria 
— a substituted penalty, designed to satisfy offended holiness, 
and reset the offender in the divine favour by expiating his 
transgression — is further proved by the utter inadequacy of 
all other theories of explanation which have been advanced. 
Strenuous effort has been made, with all the adroitness of 
special pleading and with all the skill of expert learning, to 
give another significance to sacrifices in order to eliminate 
the argument for the "blood theology" which lies in the 
bosom of this interpretation of these religious offerings : the 
inference from this interpretation, the peculiar 1 Calvinistic 
theory of the atonement which it yields logically and neces- 
sarily, is the cause of this zeal to find some/ other than the 
traditional piacular nature of the religious sacrifice. They 
have been called "fines" imposed upon offenders ; "gifts" 
made to God in recognition of his pardoning kindness ; 
"feasts" made in honor of the lovingkindness of God ; "sym- 
bols" of renewed profession of obedience made under the 
sense of restoration to the divine favour; "expressions of 
gratitude" for the special and general benefactions of God 
upon the whole life of the offerer ; "types" of the fellow- 
ship restored between God and the offender; "metaphors" 
borrowed from the heathen and the Jews as convenient and 
familiar terms in which to set forth religious ideas j— any- 
thing and everything, to avoid the idea that these sacrifices 
imply the idea of the expiation of guilt and the placation of 
deity. But none of these conceptions can account for the 
fact that the effective and acceptable sacrifice was a bloody 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 131 

offering. Why bloody the fine, the feast, the symbol, the 
type, the metaphor? Grant for one swift moment the bibli- 
cal doctrine that "without shedding of blood there is no re- 
mission," and at once the reason for the bloody sacrifice 
becomes patent. Why must the fine, the feast, the symbol, 
the type, the metaphor, or the what-not, be provided always 
by a priest f Why could not any other minister of religion 
serve just as appropriately? The attempts to void the his- 
toric meaning and purpose of religious sacrifices are obvi- 
ously but evasions; they are the poena vicaria which release 
the original from his obligation to bear the penalty in his 
own conscious person. 

(5) The gospel throws the accent upon the priestly 
mediation of Christ, with such varying modes and with such 
persistent force as to preclude the reduction of this phase of 
his saving work to any secondary or subordinate place in 
the scheme of religion which it interprets. The terminology 
of the altar abounds throughout the gospel and its most 
familiar expressions are borrowed from the ritual of sacri- 
fice : there must be some basis for the figures, some profound 
reason for these special symbols, (a) One group of passages 
throw the emphasis upon his sacrificial blood : "Neither by 
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he 
entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal 
redemption for us" (Heb. 9:12). (b) Another group repre- 
sent him as the Lamb which was slain and offered on the 
altar: "Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the 
sin of the world" (Jno. 1:29). (c) Another group repre- 
sent him as the propitiation of God : "And he is the pro- 
pitiation for our sins : and not for ours only, but also for the 
sins of the whole world" (1 Jno. 2:2). (e) Another group 
represent him in sacrificing himself as distinctly acting as a 
substitute for his people : "The good shepherd layeth down 
his life for the sheep" (Jno. 10:11). These and similar texts 
forbid all attempts to explain away the expiatory character 
of that priestly sacrifice which Christ made of himself in the 



132 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

redemption of sinners. His case alone would prove that the 
sacrifice of the priest at the altar is of the nature of a poena 
vie aria. 

III. Necessity. — There is something which makes the 
priest and his atoning sacrifice an absolute necessity in the 
Christian system in order thereby to save a sinner. The 
sacrifice of the Son by the Father is the sublimest sacrifice 
in the annals of time or records of eternity : when God "spared 
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all" there was 
nothing more nor greater which he could sacrifice in order 
to save his transgressing creature : it would be most pain- 
fully irrelevant, an ugly reflection upon his fatherly affec- 
tion, if that sacrifice were anything less than absolutely 
necessary in order to obtain the end proposed : if divine wis- 
dom could have devised, if divine power could have exe- 
cuted, any other scheme capable of achieving the end de- 
signed, every consideration rises up to demand that such a 
substitute plan be adopted in order to spare the Father the 
sacrifice of his only begotten and well beloved Son. It would 
be shocking to think that it was done by the execution of his 
own Son, when it might have been done in some other mode. 
"If righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in 
vain" (Gal. 2:21). The sacrifice of Christ is misplaced, is 
to all intents and purposes in vain, if any other means could 
have attained the redemptive end. "If a law had been given 
which could have given life, verily righteousness should have 
been by the law" (Gal. 3:21). If salvation could have been 
in any other way, it would have been in that other way : it 
was by the sacrifice of Christ for the reason that it could 
not be achieved in any other mode. What is all this but the 
assertion of the deep and indispensable necessity for the priest 
and his sacrifice in order to save guilty men? And where is 
the ground of this awful necessity? Not in the exigencies of 
government, not in the moral -condition of the sinner, but in 
the essential nature of God. 

(1) Holiness is the dynamic center of the divine char- 
acter, the fons et origo of all God's life and activity; sin is 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 133 

the moral opposite of holiness and antagonizes God at the 
very center of his moral being : before he could receive a be- 
ing affected with such a moral malady into his bosom and 
fellowship and life, without self-contamination and debase- 
ment : the sinful creature must be purged of his sinfulness : 
sacrificial blood, as it secures the grace of the Holy Spirit, 
is the only expurgating element, the only absturgent which 
can effectively reach and remove the offensive and repulsive 
moral malady; hence the necessity of a priestly sacrifice 
grounded upon that holiness which is central and determina- 
tive of all God's life : in dealing with sin and the sinner, the 
divine sense of purity must be preserved. "The blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 Jno. 1:7). 

(2) Justice is God's sense of righteousness, his consci- 
ence : sin is wrong, and puts the creature affected by it in 
opposition to the divine sense of righteousness : it ought to 
be punished, it deserves to be punished : not to punish it is 
to do wrong, is to be sinful and expose the person so over- 
looking it to just censure and render him truly liable in his 
own person for the punishment which he would not inflict 
upon the sinner who deserved it : the divine sense of what is 
right and proper, the eternal and spontaneous and necessary 
deliverances of the divine conscience, cannot be satisfied ex- 
cept the thing which ought to be done be done, except the 
deserved penalty be inflicted : the only possible mode of ethi- 
cal relief for the divine conscience is the infliction of the poena 
vicaria; if the matter cannot be reached in this mode it can- 
not be reached at all : nothing but the sacrificial blood of 
Christ as the Lamb of God can satisfy the divine conscience 
and enable God to dismiss a guilty sinner out of his court 
with his benediction and love, and yet keep within his bosom 
a "good conscience, void of offence." The necessity for the 
priest and his sacrifice is grounded in the very conscience 
of God, that moral sense which renders it impossible for him 
to do the thing which ought not to be done, which makes 
him the immutable standard of rectitude. "Jesus Christ . . . 
in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgive- 



134 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

ness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph. i \j). 
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge 
your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" 
(Heb. 9:14). "With the precious blood of Christ, as of a 
lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet. 1 .'19). 

(3) God is a true Being; every expression of himself con- 
forms to fact with perfect precision and exactitude; he never 
over-expresses himself ; he never under-expresses himself ; he 
never misrepresents in any matter nor to the minutest degree; to 
proclaim a guilty sinner just, when as a matter of fact he is 
unjust, would be to perpetrate a falsehood ; to treat one 
who deserves condemnation and expulsion from his pres- 
ence as his beloved, would be to be untrue, to make an 
incorrect representation of himself; to justify the ungodly, as 
God does do, in consistency with his own truth and frank- 
ness and transparency of moral character, demands some ex- 
piation of the guilt, some poena vie aria, which shall truly 
and fully and honorably satisfy his spoken word and that 
love of truth which lies deeper than any mere expression 
of it in words. Were he to overlook sin as a govern- 
mental expediency; were he to pass it by with a mere 
moral reprimand; were he to use it merely as an occasion for 
pointing a moral lesson to this world ; were he to deal with it 
upon the grounds of mere expediency and pardon it without 
atonement; he would not be true to himself nor true to the 
moral universe whose ideals find their eternal norms and 
standards in him. The necessity for an expiatory priest and 
sacrifice is grounded in God's immanent and necessary love 
of the truth: he is an honest God, and cannot perpetrate the 
semblance of a fraud. "God . . . which keepeth truth for 
ever" (Ps. 146:6). "As God is true" (2 Cor. 1 :i8). "O Lord, 
holy and true" (Rev. 6:10). 

(4) As a God of love he must administer penalty, where 
deserved, in the interest of happiness, for love is the impulse 
to bless : but sin brings misery, even by the force of its own 
gravitation and when it is not thought of as a punitive inflic- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 135 

tion ; the race would be more wretched in the absence of all 
penalty, in the non-infliction of judicial censures upon evil- 
doers, than it is in the rigid enforcement of law and good be- 
haviour by the imposition of due and proper penalties for 
offences committed ; the only ground for the surrender of pen- 
alty and the omission of the suffering due for transgression 
which even the divine goodness could suggest, must be found 
in some vicarious measure which would adequately and truly 
protect human happiness and welfare : not to punish evil is 
to doom the world to wretchedness, as the non-infliction of 
penalties in the State upon criminals would wreck all civic 
peace and happiness ; the very goodness of God demands, in 
case the penalty be non-imputed to the sinner, some poena 
vicaria shall be employed as the justifying reason. "God is 
love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God 
in him" (1 Jno. 4:16). 

The love of holiness — the love of righteousness — the love 
of truth — the love of goodness; these are four normative mo- 
tives of the divine heart, the central principles of God's moral 
life. It is the love of holiness which gives him infinite self- 
respect and makes him the standard of all virtue ; consequently 
he must hate and smite all that opposes itself to him as un- 
worthy. It is his love of righteousness which immanently 
causes "the judge of all the earth to do right" and insures the 
world that God can do no wrong, consequently the trans- 
gressor must suffer the punishment due to him for his sin. 
It is his love of truth which makes him invariably express 
himself fully and accurately, judging things as they are and 
treating them always as they ought to be ; consequently he 
feels truly towards sin and inflicts it as it ought to be, in 
order to be true to himself. It is his love of goodness which 
makes him concerned in the happiness of himself and his cre- 
ated universe and guarantees that he will always do the thing 
which will promote true happiness ; consequently this very 
love of goodness necessitates his punishment of the wicked, 
in order that the suffering which ought to be inflicted may be 
so inflicted as to prevent the misery which ought not to come 



136 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

upon his creatures or upon himself. The atoning priest and 
expiatory sacrifice, in a scheme of salvation provided for sin- 
ful men, are thus made necessary by (1) God's love of holi- 
ness, (2) his love of justice, (3) his love of truth, (4) his love 
of goodness. If there be any salvation, it is possible only 
by the infliction of some poena vicaria which adequately and 
truly satisfies these eternal and immanent affections of the 
divine nature. They cannot be ignored. They cannot be 
slighted. They cannot be cheated. It would be an outrage 
upon Deity, a cruelty to his creatures, to throttle them in any 
way. It would violate the essential nature of God. To save, 
the priest must atone for the sin, the sacrifice must expiate 
the guilt. The prophet may declare, but the priest must pla- 
cate the holy, the ethical, the truthful, the loving nature of 
God ; otherwise there can be no redemption. 

IV. The Only Priest. — The onliness of the priesthood of 
Christ follows directly from its nature and necessity ; he alone 
can take into the sinner's place of Jehovah's slaughter an accepta- 
ble Victim, and there in the court of atoning blood perform 
upon it the ritual of the saving sacrifice. The Melchisedecan, 
or Patriarchal, priesthood, and the Aaronic, or Mosaic, priest- 
hood, were but prefigurations of the priesthood of Christ, 
drawing all their significance and efficacy from the sacrifice 
on the cross ; otherwise, except as types of that better sacri- 
fice, they had been but the impotent slaughter of animals, at- 
tended by the vainest of ceremonials. As the tabernacle was 
but a provisional temple, made necessary by the exigencies 
of the sojourn of Israel in the wilderness, prior to the time 
when the permanent house could be built according to the 
pattern shown to Moses in the Mount; so the Patriarchal and 
Mosaic priesthoods were temporary expedients, anticipatory 
of the priesthood of Christ and drawing all their prerogatives 
and power from him by a reach forward to his incarnation ; 
they were but the shadows of which he was the reality; the 
blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin; they were 
effective only as faith looked through and beyond them to 
the Priest and the Lamb of Calvary. "Into the second went 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 137 

the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which 
he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people; the 
Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of 
all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle 
was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then pres- 
ent, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could 
not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to 
the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks, and 
divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until 
the time of reformation. But Christ being come an high priest 
of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect taber- 
nacle, not made with hands ; that is to say, not of this build- 
ing; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own 
blood he entered once into the holy place, having obtained 
eternal redemption for us. For if the bloods of bulls and 
goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sancti- 
fieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the 
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered him- 
self without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead 
works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the 
mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for 
the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first 
testament, they which were called might receive the promise 
of eternal inheritance. . . . And almost all things are by 
the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is 
no remission. It was therefore necessary that the pattern 
of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but 
the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than 
these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made 
with hands, which are the figures of the true ; but into heaven 
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor yet 
that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth 
into the holy place every year with the blood of others ; for 
then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the 
world ; but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared 
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed 
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ 



138 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

was once offered to bear the sins of many ; and unto them that 
look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto 
salvation" (Heb. 9:7-28). 

Look over this long quotation and mark the points which 
it makes concerning the onliness of the priesthood of the 
Redeemer : 

(1) All the priests of the Patriarchal and Jewish dispen- 
sations which preceded him were not real priests but only "fig- 
ures" of him which was to come. 

(2) All the victims that were slain on ancient altars 
were not effective in themselves but derived all their efficacy 
as types of that sacrifice which was "better" than they. 

(3) There was no need, as there could be no repetition, 
of the priestly ministrations of human types and figures, for 
"Christ was once offered to put away sin," and that was the 
finale of the sacerdotal service of the religion of the Redeemer. 

All human priests are now usurpers of the function; 
empty handed, they have no victim to slaughter; without an 
altar, they can only officiate by the side of their own handi- 
work; without a ritual, they can only put on the priest's 
frock and mumble an unintelligible jargon; without divine 
ordination, they thrust themselves into the priest's office, as use- 
less as they are offensive. As a Prophet Christ has no suc- 
cessor in the publication of the will of God to men ; and as a 
Priest he has no successor to his vestments and his service ; 
for, like Melchisedek, king of Salem and priest of the most 
high God, the Redeemer is "without father, without mother, 
having neither beginning of days, nor end of life," having 
neither predecessor nor successor, in the priest's office — he 
abideth a priest after the order of Melchisedek for ever, the 
first and the last and the only occupant of the priest's office in 
the house of God. . - 

V. Mode. — "Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his 
once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, 
and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 139 

for us." To satisfy the divine justice in its claims upon sin- 
ners; to reconcile offenders to God; to create a ground upon 
which continual intercession for sinners may be based; this 
Priest offered himself upon the altar of sacrifice. The Priest 
and the Victim coincided in the same person. As the High 
Priest of the Christian religion, clad in the sacerdotal vest- 
ments of his office, he led himself as a Lamb into the outer 
court of this world, the bloody place of sacrificial slaughter; 
laid his hand upon his own devoted head, confessing thereup- 
on the sins of those for whom he officiated, thus making him- 
self their scape-goat and vicarious sin-bearer; then he drew 
forth the sacrificial knife, amid the astonished gaze of the 
angelic hosts gathered as spectators of the scene upon the 
battlements of high heaven, who veiled their faces in the 
flash of the blade, while the stars stood back out of the sweep 
of his arm, and sheathed it in his own heart, pouring out his 
own life in lieu of the justly forfeited life of the human offerer ; 
he bound his human nature to the horns of the altar which 
had been kindled with the fires of the divine wrath against 
sin, that it might be consumed to ashes with the sins of his 
people; he caught the precious blood in the basin, and passed 
into the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, and pushing 
aside the veil of partition went into the shekinah of God's 
presence and sprinkled the blood upon the ark and upon the 
mercy-seat and upon all the floor round about as the evidence 
of his fulfilment of his mediatorial engagement ; and then re- 
turned to the threshold of the sanctuary with absolution and 
benediction for all for whom he made the sacrifice. The Old 
Testament ritual and the Epistle to the Hebrews justify this 
imagery. "He made himself an offering for sin." As a priest, 
he laid down his life as a sacrifice for sinners ; no man took it 
from him; he laid it down himself as a voluntary offering; 
none dragged him to the altar and place of slaughter; he came 
of his own accord and freely laid down his own precious life: 
he was the priest and the victim in the same person, in the 
same moment, in the same service. 

It was the sublimest act of worship in the annals of time 



140 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

or records' of eternity! As a priest Christ, clad in priestly- 
robes and carrying sacrificial implements in his hand, stands 
beside the altar of God, ready to lay an offering thereon : with 
that conception of the divine holiness and justice which filled 
his mind, with that sense of profound respect and reverence 
for God which characterized his spirit, with that awful de- 
votion and religious fervor which swelled his boson in that 
tense priestly moment, with his perception and estimate of the 
exceeding sinfulness of the sin for which he is about tc offer, 
with a mind fully understanding and with a heart fully ap- 
preciating the meaning and solemnity of the crucial moment, 
what victim does devout priestly instinct permit him to lay 
upon the altar as a worthy offering to his God? Shall the ex- 
pression of his religion as he stands at the altar-base be 
made with the slaughter of thousands of rams or in the liba- 
tion of ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall he climb the altar- 
stairs bearing to death in his arms the first-born among the 
sons of men or the tallest archangel that treads the gorgeous 
mosaic of the skies? What offering shall the Son of God, 
who came out from the bosom of God and who understands 
God and appreciates and reverences and respects and loves 
and adores God — what offering shall this priest make which he 
shall deem worthy of his Father's acceptance and upon which 
he can stand and base all his intercessions? This priest, in his 
quest for something worthy to bind upon the altar of his 
Father, climbed in through the window in to the holy circle of 
the Godhead and laid his sacerdotal hand upon the second 
person of that Trinitarian household, the only begotten and 
well-beloved Son of God, and sacrificed him as a victim worthy 
to be laid on the altar of God ! Did ever devotion and piety 
go beyond that which was exhibited on Calvary, when the Son 
of God, acting as a priest at his Father's altar, offered himself 
as a sacrifice to placate his Father's wrath and ransom his 
Father's people? "Therefore doth my Father love me, be- 
cause I lay down my life, that I might take it again" (Jno. 
10:17). The transaction on Calvary's top was the climax of 
priestly worship ! 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 141 

That the innocent should suffer for the guilty, that even 
the animal which did no harm should, under the typical sys- 
tem, be required to bleed and die to exculpate the human being 
who did do the wrong; that the place of Jehovah's worship be a 
place of slaughter and blood and death; has ever appeared, 
more or less, harsh and shocking to human sensibilities : it is 
next to impossible to prevent the human mind from reflecting 
upon the character of the God who makes such inexorable de- 
mands even in the name of the nakedest justice. Theologians 
are accustomed to seek for relief from this repulsive aspect of 
the gospel system by drawing attention to the fact that the 
substitute which gets in the place of the guilty must bear all 
the judicial and moral consequences of his position, however 
shocking and repulsive to the sensibilities of the beholder: 
it is but violated law collecting its due out of the voluntary- 
substitute, and the poena vicaria can be no more attractive to 
the aesthetic sensibilities than the poena persona. If the dis- 
closures of revelation stopped here ; if the death of Christ were 
represented as the bare result of his legal substitution in the 
place of the guilty sinner; then we would have, by the sheer 
force of divine revelation, to believe that it came about solely 
by the operation of naked justice, that it was a death inflicted 
by law, exacted of him as a substitute just as it would have 
been exacted of the original criminal. Faith could so receive 
it, and our corrected sense of justice could approve it, while 
the heart smothered its own cry and the face turns away from 
the scene. 

But there is something which keeps the Christian from 
bleeding internally as he looks upon his innocent Lord hang- 
ig in agony on the tree : what is it that keeps him from swoon- 
ing at the horror? What is it that makes the spectacle the 
most charming sight to his soul in all the range of vision? 
What is it that makes him stand in the presence of that ter- 
rible tragedy, from which the moon hid her face and the earth 
rent its bowels, and sing songs and shout hallelujahs? Is it 
because he is the beneficiary of the scene? Does his selfish- 
ness so assert itself at the cross that he can joy and rejoice in 



142 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the death of the guiltless Redeemer? Why, any natural man 
would profoundly sympathise with and deplore the sufferings 
and death of his friend even though he himself became an 
enormous beneficiary of those sufferings and death. Is the 
Christian so unnatural, so beastly, as to drown his sympathies 
in the sense of his gain? If so it is a terrible expose of the 
selfishness of the creature which is born again and made a 
new creature in Christ Jesus. There must be some other, 
some more consistent reason, why the beneficiary of the cross 
can be complacent in the contemplation of the Saviour while 
the woes of wrath are being poured out upon him. The cause 
is not only mitigated but absolutely cleared by reflecting that 
Christ died not merely as a legal substitute under the opera- 
tion of justice but that in dying "he made his soul an offering 
for sin." In it all he was a priest performing a religious rite 
upon himself, engaged in performing a sublime act of worship, 
an heroic and exalted act of pious devotion at the altar of the 
God he loved and adored, conscious that he was doing the very 
thing which would make his Father love him and crown him. 
He was not forcibly crucified : he voluntarily, as a priest, went 
to the altar, and in the sublimity of his devotion and in the in- 
tensity of his religion laid himself as offering upon the altar of 
God, doing the thing which delighted him most, making the 
highest expression of his religious devotion and fervor. "There- 
fore doth my Father love me." He was not a simple legal 
substitute dying under broken law for the original sinners; 
he was a priestly substitute, officiating at the altar of God in 
sublimest worship. 

Thornwell eloquently emphasises this point. He tells us 
that the Epistle to the Romans shows us what Christ did to 
save his people — died in their room and stead ; while the Epis- 
tle to the Hebrews informs us how he did what he did — died 
on the altar at his own hands as an offering made by -himself 
as the High Priest of our religion. He laments that the full 
force of this truth is too seldom felt by the Christian mind. 

"When we contemplate the death of Christ as simply the 
death of a substitute, we see it in nothing more than the full 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 143 

satisfaction to the claim of justice. The sponsor pays the 
debt, and pays it cheerfully; the legal representative endures 
the curse which others had incurred, and falls beneath the 
sword which the guilt of others had drawn from its scabbard. 
It is a transaction of law and government, the infliction of a 
judicial sentence. Though it is implied that the substitute ap- 
proves the equity of the law under which he suffers, and is 
prepared to vindicate the divine conduct from the charge of 
unreasonable rigour, — though the justice of the whole trans- 
action is assumed, yet when it is represented simply as the 
operation of justice, much of its moral grandeur and impress- 
iveness is lost. We see in the substitute a victim to his own 
generosity, and considering him exclusively in this light, there 
are probably few men who have not had occasion to fortify 
their minds against a momentary impression of unrelenting 
severity when regarding those awful attributes of God which 
make atonement the exclusive channel of mercy to the guilty. 
We must go beyond the event to its principle before we can 
be at ease when we survey the sufferings of Jesus of Nazareth. 
He is felt to be a passive victim of Divine wrath. He bares 
His bosom to the stroke, He receives the storm which beats in 
violence and fury : He simply, in other words, stands and en- 
dures, while God, and God in His most terrible forms of mani- 
festation, is the sole agent in the case. 

"Widely different is the impression which is made when 
the transaction is contemplated in its true light. There is no 
room for the remotest suspicion of inexorable rigour when 
Jesus is seen to be a priest, His death a sacrifice, and the whole 
transaction an august and glorious act of worship. The posi- 
tion of Jesus is sublime when, standing before the altar, He 
confesses the guilt of His brethren, adores the justice which 
dooms them to woe, and almost exacts from God as the con- 
dition of His own love that justice should not slacken nor 
abate. The prayer of confession, that assumption of guilt, 
that clear acknowledgement of what truth and righteousness 
demand, make us feel that God must strike, that the edict 
must go forth, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and the 



144 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts. Still sub- 
limer is His position when with profound adoration of the 
Divine character, by His own proper act, His own spontan- 
eous movement, He lays His life upon the altar, virtually say- 
ing, Take it, it ought to be taken; let the fire of justice con- 
sume it ; better, ten thousand times better, that this should be 
than the throne of the Eternal should be tarnished by an ef- 
feminate pity! We feel that death is not so much a penalty 
inflicted as an offering accepted. We feel that God is glorious, 
that the law is glorious in the whole transaction, because 
Christ glorifies them. He lays down His life of Himself ; it is 
His own choice to die rather than that men should perish or 
the Divine government be insulted with impunity ; and al- 
though in accepting the offering Justice inflicted upon Him the 
full penalty of the law, although the fire which consumed the 
victim was the curse in its whole extent, yet it was an act of 
worship to provide it, and especially as that victim was Him- 
self, every groan and pang, every exclamation of agony, amaze- 
ment and horror, was an homage to God which, in itself con- 
sidered, the Priest felt it glorious to render. And if Jesus in 
all the extremity of His passion proclaimed to the universe 
what from the nature of priesthood He must have proclaimed, 
that the whole transaction was a ground on which God was 
adored by Him, and ought to be adored by all, that His 
Father was never dearer, never more truly God in His sight, 
than when He accepted the sacrifice of Himself, the sublim- 
ity of the principles involved, and the interest of Jesus in them, 
are a perfect vindication from every illiberal suspicion. There 
is something, to our minds, inexpressibly sublime when we 
contemplate the scheme of redemption as accomplished by an 
act of worship — when we look upon Jesus not as a passive 
recipient of woes, the unresisting victim of law, but as a minis- 
ter of religion, conducting its services in the presence of angels 
and men, upon an emergency which seemed to cover the earth 
with darkness. Our world becomes the outer court of the 
sanctuary, where a sacrifice is to be offered in which the 
Priest and the Victim are alike the wonder of the universe — 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 145 

in which the worship rendered leaves it doubtful whether the 
Deity is more glorious in His justice or His grace. In this 
aspect the satisfaction of Jesus is not merely the ground upon 
which others are at liberty to approach and adore the Divine 
perfections, it is itself a prayer uttered by the lips of one 
whose deeds were words — a hymn of praise chanted by Him 
whose songs were the inspiration of holiness and truth. 
Every proud imagination is rebuked, every insinuation against 
the character of God is felt to be a shame to us, every dis- 
position to cavil or condemn is consigned to infamy, when we 
remember that the whole work of Jesus was a solemn service 
of religion, as well that by which He descended into the grave 
as that by which He passed through the heavens into the holi- 
est of all. He was a priest in His death, a priest in His res- 
urrection, a priest in His ascension. He worshiped God in 
laying His life upon the altar, He worshiped Him in taking it 
again, and it was an act of worship by which He entered with 
His blood into the very presence of the Highest to intercede 
for the saints. It was religion in Jesus to die, to rise, to 
reign, as it is religion in us to believe in these great events of 
His history." — Collected Writings, Vol. II., p. 278. 

This sublime and biblical conception of the death of 
Christ relieves it of all apparent ruthlessness and severity by 
transforming it into the highest form of priestly worship. He 
died, not as the felon dies who perishes in the merciless grasp 
of broken law, which cannot stay its afflictive hand until it has 
crushed the life out of the criminal ; he died, not as the unfor- 
tunate dies who, coming too near the revolving wheels of 
this world's machinery, is caught by bands and pulleys and 
cruelly torn asunder; he died, not as the invalid dies whose 
life-tides run out gradually until the beach is dry ; but he died 
as the sacrificial lamb dies, upon whose devoted head is laid 
the sin of the worshipper and then is sacredly bound upon the 
altar; he died as only Christ could die, himself the sin-bearing 
Victim ready for the sacrifice and himself the Priest who 
sacredly offers himself upon the altar as the sublimest ex- 
pression which the filial piety of a devoted Son could make to 



146 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the Father whom he loved and adored. No wonder the holi- 
est angel puts his golden wings before his face when he com- 
pares his loftiest act of devotion to that worship which was 
rendered on Calvary by him who was prevented by the nails 
in his hands from clasping the heart which was breaking in 
filial love and devotion for his adorable Father! No wonder 
the sacramental host can gather around the base of Golgotha, 
with uncovered head and unshod foot, moved, not by the 
selfish profit which accrues to the saints out of all that awful 
tragedy of suffering and death, but with transfigured wonder 
and admiration at such a spectacle of affection and reverence 
and loyalty and devotion to God, the mighty Maker and 
Judge of us all ! No wonder the devil, and all the enemies of 
God, groaned in defeat and despair when they saw him whom 
they had sought to traduce and alienate from the service of the 
Deity, in that last consummate act of piety offering up his life 
to God as a testimony of his love and devotion! No wonder 
death and the grave could not hold him in their dominion, for 
the almighty arms of his heavenly Father stretched down for 
him, who as a priest had offered himself in the loftiness of his 
adoration and in the exuberance of his piety, that he might 
send up to heaven a savour which would be fragrant in the 
nostrils of his Father! No wonder Jehovah acclaimed him 
the "Saviour of the world !" No wonder he said, "Let all the 
angels of God worship him!" No wonder he cried out from 
his seat on the flaming circles of the heavens, "This is my be- 
loved Son in whom I am well pleased !" "Therefore doth my 
Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take 
it again." 

If the world could see the death of Christ in this light; 
if they could see the grandeur and glory of this self-immola- 
tion out of sheer love for his Father and devotion to his per- 
son and his honor; if those who cavil at the "theology of 
blood" and contemn what they call the "theology of the 
shambles" and the "religion of the slaughter pen," could grasp 
the doctrine of the priesthood of Christ and catch some faint 
glimpse of that religious fervor and devotion which led him to 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 147 

offer up himself to God ; they would see the utter poverty 
and inadequacy of those views which can find in the death of 
Christ nothing but a martyrdom to truth, or the accident of a 
good man becoming involved in the miseries of this life, or a 
mere stroke of divine statecraft to preserve the throne and 
dominion of God on the earth. "Therefore doth my Father love 
me" : therefore, much more, infinitely more, the sinful and 
miserable worms of this world ought to pay him homage, and 
pray to be bathed in his sacrificial blood. 

VI. Departments. — There are two distinct departments in 
the priestly work of Christ: (1) Atonement and (2) Inter- 
cession. 

1. Atonement is a technicality for that aspect of the sacri- 
fice of Christ by which he expiates the guilt of sin and pro- 
pitiates God : as a result God and the beneficiary of the atone- 
ment are reconciled to each other. The work of the atone- 
ment is just the work of reconciliation: it treats of that thing 
which Christ has done to restore the favour of God to those 
whom the Redeemer represented when he laid their sins on the 
head of himself as the Lamb and then offered himself on the 
altar of God. 

2. Intercession is that other technicality for the second 
half of the priestly work of Christ which consists in his ap- 
pearing before God as an advocate and pleading the cause of 
his people, using his bloody sacrifice as the argument with 
which he urges their cause, which is also his cause. "Father, 
I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me 
where I am ; that they may behold my glory which thou hast 
given me : for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the 
world" (Jno. 17:24). When the priest presented the blood, 
he plead for the benefits for the worshipper upon the ground 
of what he brought before God in the priestly basin. In inter- 
cession Christ seeks for the fruits of his sacrifice in the con- 
version and sanctification and glorification of all the saints. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Atonement: Its Necessity 

A Summary Statement. 

The Presbyterian believes that the Atonement is the most 
fundamental doctrine of the Gospel. As he understands it, 
there is a moral obstacle in the mind of God in the way of 
an unconditional pardon and restoration of the offending 
sinner. Then as he understands the case, the sinner is at 
enmity against God, and does not desire to be reconciled to 
him. If, therefore, the mediation of Christ is to be effective 
he must do two things: (i) propitiate God, and (2) placate 
man. The necessity of the Atonement is grounded, first in 
the moral nature of God, and second in the moral nature of 
man. 

1. If we take the shoes off of our feet, and with the Scrip- 
tures in our hands we go into the nature of God, we can see 
five reasons why the Deity cannot unconditionally pardon the 
offending sinner. 

(1) His truth. He has solemnly said, "The soul that 
sinneth it shall die/ In any scheme of reconciliation his 
veracity must be taken care of. Truth is a fundamental moral 
virtue. 

(2) His justice. "The Judge of all the earth must do right," 
and give reward to whom reward is due, and punishment to 
whom punishment is due. Justice is also a fundamental moral 
attribute of character. Without a sense of righteousness, the 
Divine Being would be morally incompetent for the throne 
of the universe. 

(3) His holiness. The Scriptures aboundingly portray the 
Deity as morally clean, and pure, and uncontaminated. He 
cannot take an impure being to his heart without sullying his 
own virtue. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 149 

(4) His government. God is not a private person, with 
only his own personal concerns to consider. He is the Gov- 
ernor and Ruler of the universe. If he pardons without ade- 
quate reasons ; if he deals with transgression in a feeble and 
namby-pamby manner; he would put a premium upon dis- 
obedience and jeopardize his whole administration. 

(5) His word. If these reasons do not satisfy, the Scrip- 
tures plainly tell us that "without shedding of blood is no re- 
mission." The offending subject must accept the declaration 
of his sovereign, whether it looks reasonable to him or not. 

For these reasons the Presbyterian believes that any 
scheme of redemption must propitiate the Divine Being — 
must genuinely and truly satisfy the moral nature of God, so 
that he could feel that he was doing himself no wrong in for- 
giving and restoring the sinner. He cannot sacrifice his moral 
self-respect to save an offender. 

2. But if only God be propitiated and nothing be done to 
placate the sinner, the Presbyterian believes that reconcilia- 
tion would be an entirely one-sided affair. So it is the task 
of Christ also to change the attitude and Spirit of man to- 
wards God. The human mind must be changed, so that man 
shall entertain different opinions about his God and Ruler. 
The human heart must be changed, so that the sinner can 
feel differently towards his Maker. The human conscience 
must be changed, so that the moralizings of the human being 
shall be different. And the human will must be changed, so 
that there shall be a different course of conduct of the sub- 
ject of the divine government. To effect such a revolution 
in the human being the Presbyterian believes that Christ by 
his Atonement purchased the Holy Spirit's grace, by which 
the mind, heart, conscience, will and conduct of the sinner 
duplicates that which was in Christ Jesus. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Atonement: 
The Theory of Satisfaction 

Atonement is an English formation from at-one-ment. It 
connotes that work which Christ has done in reconciling God 
and his people — the thing which Christ has done in order to 
bring God and his estranged people into a state of at-one-ment. 

It occurs in the Old Testament, but it is not a New 
Testament technicality. That, however, constitutes no valid 
ground of criticism, for a sound bibliologist had just as 
soon have a term from one Testament as from the other, 
inasmuch as he regards both as co-ordinate parts of divine 
revelation, of equal dogmatic value. The term is not the 
historic technicality for the saving work of Christ and is 
of relatively modern origin. It is not a happy appellation 
for the reason that while it signifies the fact that Christ did 
something which brought God and his people into a state of 
at-one-ment with each other the technicality does not itself 
hint anything as to the nature of the reconciling work which 
Christ did perform for this purpose. It would manifestly have 
been better, and a distinct advantage, had such a technicality 
been chosen which would have indicated not only the fact 
but also the mode of the fact. How did Christ reconcile the 
estranged people of God to their Maker? This term throws 
not a shred of light upon this point; it goes no further than 
assert the fact of the reconciliation. But the term has come 
into general use, because of its colorlessness, and it is a waste 
of time to attempt to expel it from the theological vocabulary. 
We had as well admit it, and then set to work to lay the 
various theories as to the nature of the atonement by the 
side of each other with a view to showing which one truly 
and correctly represents the biblical mode of the Redeemer's 
saving work. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 151 

Different theological writers enumerate a large number 
of theories of the atonement ; but I am of the opinion that 
they can all be reduced to four ground forms: (1) The Satis- 
faction Theory; (2) The Moral Influence Theory; (3) The 
Governmental Theory ; (4) The Mystical Theory. The ex- 
position and criticism of these four leading theories of the 
atonement of Christ will result in a complete exhibition of 
the saving work of the Redeemer. 

I. The Theory of Satisfaction. 

This particular explanation of the mode in which Christ 
saves his people holds a prominent place in soteriology. Its 
advocates freely call it the catholic doctrine, and claim for 
it that it has been the prevailing view among evangelical 
theologians throughout the entire history of dogmatics. It 
is referred to in doctrinal histories as the Pauline, the Augus- 
tine, the Anselmic, the Calvinistic, the Reformed, interpre- 
tation of the saving work of Christ. It has found its central 
place and full expression in the ''Federal Theology." It is 
stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith in these words : 
"The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of 
himself, which he, through the eternal Spirit, once offered 
unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father, and 
purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheri- 
tance in the kingdom of heaven for all those whom the Father 
had given unto him." In this statement the thing to be satis- 
fied was "the justice of his Father"; the result of satisfying 
that justice was the purchase of "reconciliation and an ever- 
lasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven," and the means 
of thus satisfying the justice of his Father with the saving 
results mentioned was his "obedience and sacrifice of himself," 
and the beneficiaries of the satisfaction were "all those whom 
the Father had given unto him." With this statement all 
the Reformed creeds agree. But the fundamental nature of 
the subject and the elaborate debate which was waged furi- 
ously about it demand a careful and articulate statement of 
the essential points in this conception of Christ's saving work. 



152 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

I. The accent is thrown, first of all, upon the idea of 
satisfaction. The being who has been offended, and who 
needs to be satisfied, is God; and that in God which must 
be satisfied is his sense of justice, his ethical idea of righteous- 
ness, and that which satisfies this idea of justice is the sacri- 
ficial and penal death of the Lord Jesus. To appease the 
moral wrath of God, and satisfy his moral sense of justice, 
the sinner must die a penal death, or the Redeemer must die 
a penal death in his room and; stead. It is the attitude of 
the divine being towards the sinner which makes it necessary 
that Christ, if he is to save the offender, die a penal death. 

But Grotius excogitated, and the Remonstrants and high 
Arminians adopted, a scheme for a fictitious satisfaction of 
the divine sense of justice. It was called the acceptilatio 
theory. It was held that Christ's obedience and death were 
not of such an inherent and intrinsic value as to ipso facto 
satisfy the divine sense of justice, but that God, by sovereign 
decree, raised it to that value — determined by fiat to accept 
his death in lieu of the sinner's death. In other words, he 
required his justice to be satisfied with what did not truly 
and literally satisfy the divine sense of righteousness ; that is, 
the death of Christ was not a substituted penalty but a substitute 
for penalty. Hence it became early necessary for the Reformers 
to emphasize the fact that the work of Christ was a bona fide sat- 
isfaction, as distinguished from a supposititious satisfaction, of the 
divine sense of justice awakened by his perception of human guilt. 
If God by decree could raise the sacrificial blood of Christ 
to a value sufficient to satisfy his sense of justice when as a 
matter of fact that blood did not possess that intrinsic worth- 
fulness, it would look as if he could arbitrarily raise anything 
to any value. Why then did he not, by sheer governmental 
fiat, exalt the blood of bulls and goats to this degree of moral 
worth and so placate his conscience without sacrificing his 
Son? It is clear that if redemption could have been secured 
in this factitious way it would have been secured in this 
manner. So the Reformers accentuate the fact that the satis- 
faction made by the Redeemer was a real, bona fide and 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 153 

genuine satisfaction, which involved the divine conscience in 
no compromise in accepting it as fully satisfying his entire 
moral nature as it had been offended by human transgression. 
It cannot be held that the Deity perpetrated, and imposed 
upon himself, any sort of legal fiction for the salvation of 
those who merited eternal death. His moral sense was truly 
and really satisfied and his conscience was not practiced 
upon. He had perception and a true moral sense as to the 
real desert of sin when he threatened it in Eden; he never 
could trifle either with the sinner or with himself. Having 
pronounced the death-sentence, he must seriously execute it, 
or confess that he over-reached justice when he imposed it. 
The atonement, to be effective, must, really and truly, and 
not in some fictitious and make-believe fashion, be a satis- 
faction of God's offended conscience and sense of righteous- 
ness. 

II. Satisfactionists next throw the emphasis, in stating 
their theory of the atonement, upon the idea of vicariousness. 
They contend for a vicarious atonement as contradistinguished 
from a personal atonement. In making this distinction, Cal- 
vinists are brought into sharp opposition to Socinians, Uni- 
tarians and all the advocates of the moral influence theory. 
It is contended on the one side that atonement for sin must 
be made by some other than the offender; and on the other 
side it is held that each sinner must make reparation for his 
own evil life and conduct. The one party holds to the scheme 
of vicarious satisfaction; and the other contends for a per- 
sonal satisfaction. This is the great antithesis between Cal- 
vinists and the ethicalists upon the nature of the satisfaction 
required of sinners ; it is the antithesis between an evangeli- 
cal gospel and an ethical gospel. It is vitally important to 
mark this difference between personal and vicarious atone- 
ment. 

(a) Personal atonement is made by the offending party; 
vicarious atonement is made by the offended party. If a 
man commits an offence, then either he must atone for the 



154 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

offence himself or some one must make the atonement for 
him. If he makes the atonement directly for himself, then 
he renders personal satisfaction for his offence; but if another 
makes satisfaction for him, then a vicarious atonement is 
made in the expiation of his evil doing. If the citizen pays 
the fine assessed by the court upon him, then he personally 
satisfies the claims of justice by his own civil action. If a 
murderer is executed, then he personally atones for his crime 
according to the forms of civil law. If a sinner against God's 
moral government suffers eternal punishment for his offence, 
he would personally atone for his transgression and diso- 
bedience. But if another pays the assessed fine, or suffers 
execution (assuming that it were allowable under human con- 
stitutions), or endures the punishment of hell, then the atone- 
ment of these offences would be vicariously made. Personal 
and vicarious atonement differ from each other as to the 
atoning agent. 

(b) Personal atonement is made by the criminal; vicari- 
ous atonement is made for the criminal. In the one case he 
is the agent satisfying law in his own person and expiating 
his offence by his own act; in the other he is the beneficiary, 
receiving the results of another's action. If a sinner made 
a personal atonement of his sin against God, he would be 
the agent satisfying for his own offence; but if a vicarious 
atonement were made for his sin, he would be a passive 
beneficiary of what God had provided for him through his 
Son. 

(c) Personal atonement is incompatible with mercy; but 
vicarious atonement is the highest exhibition of grace. When 
a citizen pays his fine, he satisfies law and justice and receives 
his discharge as a matter of right; when a friend pays his 
fine for him, justice and law are satisfied by another than the 
offender and the offender receives his discharge as a matter 
of grace shown him on account of his friend's kindness. When 
the sinner satisfies the broken law of God in his own eternal 
death, he receives justice without mercy; when God in the 
person of his Son satisfies law and justice for him, he receives 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 155 



mercy without justice; that is, it is justice to Christ to dis- 
charge the sinner, but it is grace to the sinner to remit his 
penalty. 

(d) Personal atonement cannot secure eternal life for 
the sinner, because it takes his eternal death to satisfy the 
law; but vicarious atonement can convey eternal life, because 
the Son of God can do, in a limited period of time, what it 
would take a sinner an eternity to accomplish. 

In stating their doctrine of the atonement of Christ, Cal- 
vinists are careful to emphasize the point that it is of the 
nature of a vicarious satisfaction. It is genuine, and not 
supposititious ; it is vicarious, and not personal. Christ is rep- 
resented as the substitute of the offender, standing in his 
room and tracks and doing the things which the sinner ought 
to do in order to propitiate God and expiate his sin. A great 
exchange is made; the sinner's guilt is imputed to Christ and 
the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the sinner. On ac- 
count of this putative guilt, Christ is crucified ; on account of 
this imputed righteousness, the sinner is justified. Atone- 
ment is made by the offended party, to the offended party, 
and for the offending party, and so grace is magnified upon 
grace. Substitution and imputation are the Jachin and Boaz — 
the twin pillars — of the scheme of atonement by satisfaction. 

III. The atonement is sacrificial, as opposed to didactic. 
The Redeemer made a genuine satisfaction of the moral nature 
of God in its demands upon sinful men, not by lesson and 
example, but by laying himself upon the altar of God a veri- 
table sacrifice in lieu of the sinner who ought to have been 
consumed thereon. It is the office of a prophet to teach ; and 
Christ in the exercise of his prophetical function made the 
revelation of the gospel, setting out therein the terms and 
mode of God's reconciliation with offending sinners. But it 
is the office of a priest to offer sacrifices upon an altar to ex- 
piate the offence and placate the offended deity; and Christ 
in the exercise of his priestly function laid himself upon the 
altar, and with sacrificial knife drew the blood, and made it 
an offering for atonement. It was in his priestly capacity, 



156 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

and not in his prophetical office, that he made the atonement. 
Consequently the essence of the atonement is in suffering — 
in blood-letting. It is everywhere exhibited in the gospel in 
the language of the priest, the altar, and the sacrifice. It is 
perpetually set forth as that which expiates sin and propitiates 
the Deity. The moral influence theory, on the other hand, 
finds the essence of Christ's saving work to consist in the 
lessons which he taught the world, in the example which he 
set mankind, in the moral leadership which he assumed before 
the race ; that is, it is didactic in its nature. Its animus is 
to get rid of the "bloody theology," and give such an inter- 
pretation of the saving work of the Redeemer as will relieve 
us from thinking of God as a being who can be propitiated 
only with blood. But the Calvinistic theory of atonement 
is careful to assert and stress the point that the satisfaction 
which Christ made to justice was in the mode of a sacrifice — 
the substitution of one victim for another. Redemption, then, 
was not achieved by an exercise of almighty power, forcibly 
lifting the guilty sinner from under his doom into the security 
and blessedness of heaven; not by a course of moral instruc- 
tion, with the words and example and life of Christ as the text- 
book, thereby training and cultivating men out of a sinful 
into a holy and heavenly life ; but by the application of the 
lex talionis, in taking the life of the substitute instead of the 
life of the person whom he represented. There was no cheat- 
ing or tricking of justice. Jesus paid the penalty both in 
kind and degree. As to kind, the penalty laid upon the 
sinner was a capital punishment — death ; Jesus died in deed 
and in truth that very human death, and so satisfied the law 
as to the kind of penalty exacted. As to degree, the law de- 
manded an infinite death as the only degree of penalty ade- 
quate to the offence which had been committed against the 
glory and honor of an infinite being; for a finite being to 
pay an infinite penalty, he must be eternally at it — it would 
take him an eternity to cancel the debt by making finite in- 
stalments upon it; but Jesus, being divine as well as human, 
is able to pay infinite penalty in a moment of time. (If a 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 157 

man could pay but one penny a year on a billion dollar debt, 
it would require an indefinite time for him to liquidate his 
obligation. The sinner's obligations are infinite in magni- 
tude ; his resources are finite and limited ; it would take eter- 
nity for him to liquidate his obligation ; but Christ having in- 
finite resources, could cancel the obligation in limited time). 
Hence, I say, the Redeemer paid the penalty both in degree 
and kind when he ofTered himself as a sacrifice on the altar 
of God's displeasure. The atonement was effected under an 
application of the lex talionis, and justice was truly and gen- 
uinely satisfied in the vicarious sacrifice of the Redeemer. 

IV. As to results, Satisfactionists hold that the atoning death 
of Christ terminated: (1) upon the guilt of the offender and 
expiated it, wiping it out of existence ; (2) upon the Father, 
representing the Trinity, and propitiated him, turning his moral 
wrath into moral love by satisfying his sense of justice and 
righteousness; (3) upon the Spirit, and impetrated his services 
for the subjective cleansing and sanctification of all the benefi- 
ciaries of the atoning transaction ; (4) and so ipso facto secures 
the eternal salvation of all those for whom the atonement was 
made. Consequently, all the benefits of redemption, all} the 
items of Christian experience — regeneration, faith, repentance, 
justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification — are but the 
translation into consciousness of the things which were secured 
by the atonement of Christ. 

Gathering together the points in the foregoing exposition, 
the orthodox doctrine of the atonement may be succinctly de- 
scribed, as that work of Christ which was, in its nature, a vicari- 
ous sacrificial satisfaction of the moral nature of God as it had 
been offended by human transgression ; and resulted in the ex- 
tinction of guilt, the placation of Deity, the impetration of the 
Spirit, and the final glorification of all those persons for whom 
it was made. 



158 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 



II. PROOFS. 

To present the argument for the Satisfaction Theory in 
all amplitudes of its detail would subsidize the entire Bible ; 
and the teachings of the Scriptures on the subject must be 
gathered up and generalized under a few strong and effective 
arguments. 

I. The sacrificial system of the Jewish dispensation, 
which was typical of the saving work of the Redeemer, 
proves that the atonement was, in its nature, a vicarious, 
sacrificial satisfaction of the offended justice of God. 

Israel having committed a trespass, the problem created 
by his offence is : How can the offender go into the shekinah 
of God's presence, and return with absolution and benedic- 
tion? The elaborate ceremonial system prescribed, with great 
detail, for offences of different kinds and different grades, but 
all the fundamental features were the same. In the effort to 
answer the great question which touches the very heart of 
atonement, let us go to the ritual of the "Day of Atonement," 
and seek therefrom an account of the things which had to be 
done in order to reconcile God to the offender. The regu- 
lations for this service are recorded in Lev. 16. The fol- 
lowing are the essential features of the programme which was 
to be executed in making the atonement : 

1. The offenders could not go in person into the Most 
Holy Place, behind the veil, and present themselves before 
the shekinah and seek immediately their forgiveness and re- 
conciliation ; they must go in the person of the High Priest as 
their representative. An attempt by them to make a personal 
atonement for their transgression would have added to their 
sinfulness, and called down upon them the displeasure of the 
very Being whom they were seeking to placate : such a course 
would have been an impudent intrusion which would have 
challenged the wrath of their God. The offenders themselves 
were rigidly barred from all attempt to make atonement for 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 159 

themselves, and their disbarment was rational and proper, 
for a sinner is one who has been ordered out of God's sight, 
and forbidden to come into his presence, because of his in- 
sulting and offensive conduct : Deity can hold no audiences 
with him; he can have no access to God in order to make 
any representations of case, or enter any pleas in his behalf; 
he has no right and no privilege to draw nigh before his in- 
sulted Maker. He must obtain access through another and 
make all intercessions through a mediator who has the privi- 
lege of being heard. In Israel's case the High Priest was pro- 
vided and designated as the one person in all the nation to 
whom it was permitted to draw nigh to God and open his 
mouth with petition and plea. He must act as vicar, substi- 
tute, mediator, representative. There is no other mode of 
access for offending Israel. In other words, the ritual em- 
phasized the vicariousness of the atoning transaction and in- 
hibited the whole idea of a personal action looking to the 
reconciliation of God to himself. 

2. The ritual also accented the idea that the priest, the 
vicar and substitute and agent of the sinning people, could 
not go into God's presence with impunity except he carried 
the blood, which had been shed according to the prescription. 
The substitute must be a priest, and the priest must have a 
victim, and the victim must be offered on the altar according 
to ritualistic provision, and its blood carried behind the veil 
and sprinkled upon the mercy-seat. On the great annual day 
of national atonement, Aaron laid his hands upon the head 
of one goat and symbolically imposed upon him, or imputed 
to him, the sins of the people, and this goat was sent into the 
wilderness to signify the bearing away of the sins of the chil- 
dren of Israel ; and he also laid his hands upon the other goat 
and symbolically imposed upon him, or imputed to him, the 
sins of offending Israel, and this goat was slaughtered and 
offered in sacrifice according to the ritual, to signify the 
atoning expiation of the offence which had been thus made, 
and its blood was sprinkled before the mercy-seat, and the 
High Priest returned with absolution and blessing. There 



160 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

were two goats in this ritual, because two were necessary to 
carry out the symbolism; the dead goat! signified the expia- 
tion of guilt and the scape-goat signified that the sins of 
Israel were carried away into the wilderness of forgetful- 
ness, to be called up against them no more for ever. This 
feature of the atoning service accentuates the idea of expiation 
and, further, the idea of expiation by sacrifice. It was not 
the didactics of the symbolism which made the transaction ef- 
fective, but it was distinctly the sacrificial blood which se- 
cured Israel's ceremonial discharge. These sacrifices made 
the place of Jehovah's worship reek with blood, because blood 
was the effective atoning agency in the ceremonial. The 
offerings of the ritual were divided into two kinds — bloody 
and unbloody sacrifices. The bloody offerings were effective 
for atonement; the unbloody offerings were expressions of 
thanksgiving and gratitude and were acceptable only when 
they were predicated upon the bloody sacrifices. All this 
makes it obvious that the Jewish system was truly piacular 
in its nature — essentially a sacrificial system of making an 
atonement for sin. 

3. The Jewish ritual of atonement makes it plain that 
the attitude of God towards trespassing Israel, while not one 
of implacability, was one of moral wrath. The sin which had 
been committed had awakened his sense of justice into oppo- 
sition and provoked his righteous indignation. His attitude 
was not that of a teacher provoked at dullards and block- 
heads ; nor was it that of a governor concerned for his ad- 
ministration and the public welfare of his subjects; but it 
was that of a representative of morality and justice and truth; 
he had a sense of a wrong which had been perpetrated, and 
as the standard of all rectitude he must defend righteousness 
and law and exact a true and proper reparation for the offence 
which had been committed. He ethically demanded the 
sacrifice. These typical sacrifices were not made before the 
people as spectators, for the sake of the dramatic impression 
which might be made upon the beholders ; they terminated 
upon the offence which had been committed and expiated it 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 161 

and upon the conscience of the Deity and satisfied it. The 
ritual of atonement clearly shows that this priestly trans- 
action propitiated God towards offending Israel; when the 
High Priest returned to the outer court of the sanctuary, he 
brought back with him absolution and divine benediction — 
the favour and good will and love of a reconciled God. The 
ritual reveals the fact that that atonement was a genuine 
satisfaction of the offended justice of God. 

Assembling, then, these points which are gathered from 
the ritual of the day of atonement, it is clear that that trans- 
action was a vicarious, sacrificial, satisfaction of the justice 
of God. All the essential points in the Satisfaction Theory 
are made good. If, therefore, it can be shown that these 
Jewish schemes of reconciliation were typical of that recon- 
ciliation which is effected by the work of Christ, the argu- 
ment for this conception of the saving work of the Redeemer 
will be complete. Were these Jewish procedures symbolical 
of the atonement of the Redeemer? 

(i) Our Lord himself gathered up the whole Old Testa- 
ment Scripture, in all its divisions of Law and Prophets and 
Psalms, and converged it upon himself, as deriving all its 
meaning and significance from its bearing upon him and 
from its typifying of him. That is, without Christ, all Old 
Testament ritual and symbolism and teaching would have 
been empty shells without any real kernels. This was his 
avowed interpretation : "To him give all the prophets wit- 
ness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him, 
shall receive remission of sins." (Acts 10:43). "And be- 
ginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded 
unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning him- 
self." (Luke 24:27). "These are the words which I spake 
unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be 
fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in 
the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me." (Luke 24:44). 
"Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal 
life ; and they are they which testify of me." (Jno. 5 :39) . 
Nathaniel said, "We have found him, of whom Moses in the 



1 62 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son 
of Joseph." (Jno. i 45). At his crucifixion it was said, "These 
things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled. " (Jno. 
19:36). "Even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." (1 
Cor. 5:7). Consequently our Lord and his interpreters focus 
all the Old Testament upon Christ in such a manner that it 
must be held that, in their opinion, all its rites and cere- 
monies, especially its elaborate ritual sacrifice, had signifi- 
cance and meaning only as they were types and symbols of 
his own atoning work. There must be some correspondence 
between the sign and the thing signified, between the type 
and the antitype ; in other words, the Old Testament sacrifi- 
cial system was a sign of the sacrifice of the Redeemer in 
the execution of his mediatorial work in saving his people. 

(2) That the Mosaic sacrificial system was not only sym- 
bolic of divine truth in connection with the contemporaneous 
dispensation, but that it also looked forward through its types 
to the better and more realistic things of the gospel, is proved 
by the fact that the sacrificial language of the Old Testament 
is so embroidered throughout the representations of the work 
of Christ in the New Testament as to warrant the induction 
and generalization that the New was hidden in the Old and 
the Old was revealed in the New. John the Baptist, standing 
on the threshhold of the New Dispensation, pointing an index- 
finger to the Redeemer, said, "Behold the lamb of God which 
taketh away the sin of the world" (Jno. 1:29). Paul de- 
scribes the saving work of the Redeemer in this language : 
"He gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for 
a sweet smelling savour" (Eph. 5 \2) ; and it is a significant 
point in this text that it so plainly teaches one phase of the 
Satisfaction Theory which some are zealous to deny, namely, 
that the sacrifice was made to God for the sake of its influence 
upon the Deity, and not for the purpose of influencing the 
offending sinner, nor for its general impression upon the 
moral universe. Again this apostle says : "Now once in the 
end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the 
sacrifice of himself . . . having been once offered to 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 163 

bear the sins of many" (Heb. 9:26). It must here be noted 
that the Redeemer "put away sin," or expiated it; and that 
the mode of "putting it away" was by "the sacrifice of him- 
self." . . . which scores two points in favour of the Satis- 
faction Theory, namely, (a) that his atonement was expiatory 
and (b) that it was sacrificial in its nature. Again : "We 
were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb 
without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet. 1:19). The aton- 
ing element was "blood," and not only blood, but specifically 
and emphatically "the blood of a lamb." "This man, after 
he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the 
right hand of God. . . . By one offering he hath perfected 
for ever them that are sanctified" (Heb. 10:12-14). These 
are but a few specimen passages which illustrate how the 
sacrificial phraseology of the Mosaic economy intertwines, in- 
terlaces and threads the New .Testament description of the 
saving work of Christ and compels us to reason back to the 
conclusion that the old ritual was typical and symbolic of 
the saving atonement of our Lord, and not only justifies our 
representing it as a vicarious sacrificial satisfaction of sin, 
but requires us to so interpret the atonement if we would be 
faithful to teachings of both or either Testament. 

(3) That the Jewish sacrifices were anti-typical of the 
saving sacrifice of Christ is distinctly and categorically as- 
serted in the New Testament. Paul declares that they were 
the "shadow" of which Christ was the "body" ; the Redeemer 
of the New Testament cast his shadow upon the Old Testa- 
ment, and the likeness was that of the Jewish altar with its 
ritual. They "are a shadow of things to come, but the body 
is of Christ" (Col. 2:17). The Epistle to the Hebrews is a 
translation of the sacrificial system of Judaism and an appli- 
cation of it to Christ as explanatory of his saving work. "A 
shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of 
the things" (Heb. 10:1). The tabernacle and its services are 
set forth as the "pattern" of Christ's work in saving sinners : 
"It was therefore necessary that the patterns of the things 
in the heavens should be purified with these (blood of bulls 



164 Christian..S alvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

and goats) ; but the heavenly things themselves with better 
sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy 
places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; 
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God 
for us" (Heb. 9:23, 24). The Mosaic things were "figures" 
of the true heavenly things. "For if the blood of bulls and 
of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, 
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; how much more shall 
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered 
himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
works to serve the living God?" (Heb. 9:13, 14). If the one 
sacrifice can avail to effect the lower end, how much more 
shall the higher sacrifice avail to effect the higher end? Then 
the sacrificial system of the Jewish system was a "shadow," 
a "figure," a "pattern," of the things which Christ did to save 
his people. There must be some correspondence of the sign 
to the thing signified; some resemblance between the 
"shadow" and the "substance" which casts it; some resem- 
blance between the "figure" and the thing prefigured; some 
resemblance between the "pattern" and the thing copied 
from it. 

If, therefore, the method of saving trespassers under the 
ceremonial system of the Jewish economy was by a vicarious 
sacrificial satisfaction, which propitiated God and expiated 
the offence ; and if the Jewish method was but prototypical 
of the saving scheme of the gospel; it follows, logically and 
necessarily, from the principle that the type must figure the 
antitype, that the atonement under the New Testament must 
also be a vicarious sacrificial satisfaction of the justice of 
God, placating his wrath by expiating the sinner's guilt. In 
other words, the Jewish sacrificial system proves the Satis- 
faction Theory as to the nature of the atonement of Christ. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Atonement : Its Extent 

Upon this subject theologians divide into two classes — 
Limitationists and Universalists. 

Limitationists are those who hold that Christ died for 
some men ; Universalists are those who hold that Christ died 
for all men. 

Universalists are of three kinds or grades: I. True and 
proper Universalists, who hold that Christ so died for all 
men as to secure the salvation of absolutely every member 
of the Adamic family ; 2. Hypothetical Universalists, who hold 
that Christ died to make the salvation of all men possible 
but hypothecated the result upon certain specified action of 
man; and 3. Conditional Universalism, in which it is held that 
Christ died for all men upon condition of repentance and 
faith and evangelical obedience. According to the first school, 
the Atonement made the salvation of all men fact ; according 
to the second, it made the salvation of all men an hypotheti- 
cal fact; according to the third, it made the salvation of all 
men possible. The first is the position of Universalists proper; 
the second is the position of New School Presbyterians ; the 
third is the position of Arminians and Methodists. 

The doctrine of Universalists is perfectly plain : Christ 
came into the world to save all men and did what he came 
to do. But the difference between Hypothetical Universal- 
ists and Arminians is not so patent. The New Schoolman 
holds that God made the salvation of all men possible so far 
as there was reason against them on his side of the contro- 
versy, but he did not remove, by the work of Christ, the 
obstacles to their salvation which lay in the depravity of 
their own minds and in the disinclination of their own hearts. 
He cleared away all obstacles on the divine side, and so far 
forth made the salvation of all possible, but inasmuch as the 
Atonement did not regenerate any mind where all were dead 



1 66 Christian Salvation, — Its Doctrine and Experience 

in trespasses and sins, the death of Christ did not have the 
effect of subjectively empowering the fallen will, and conse- 
quently made the salvation of no man possible. The Atone- 
ment made the salvation of all men divinely possible, but 
left it humanly impossible. To put the same doctrine in an- 
other way, God first in the order of thought decreed the 
salvation of all men, but foreseeing that none would believe 
because all were depraved decreed the salvation of the elect, 
in which he determined to remove the disabilities of a de- 
praved will and efficaciously apply the Atonement to them. 

The Arminian, on the contrary, construes the atonement 
itself as removing all divine and human obstacles to the sal- 
vation of the world, and so clearly teaches the possible salva- 
tion of all mankind. The Arminian's universality is one of 
mere possibility and not one of fact. Thus is he clearly 
differentiated from the strict universalist. And so also does 
it appear from even a superficial examination that the Ar- 
minian universalism is in pretense only. 

Throwing out the scheme of Hypothetical Universalism, 
which confesses itself to be a failure as a matter of fact, there 
are but two schemes of Universalism, Universalism proper 
and Arminianism. One is the Universalism of fact and the 
other is the Universalism of mere possibility. According to 
the one Christ died to save all men ; according to the other 
he died to make all men salvable. 

Christ died efficaciter pro omnibus — that is the formula 
of Universalism. 

Christ died sufficienter pro omnibus — that is the formula 
of Arminianism. 

Christ died sufficienter pro omnibus, sed efficienter tan- 
tum pro electis — that is the formula of Calvinism. 

The Universalist is an extremist in saying that the death 
of Christ saves all men ; the Arminian is an extremist ,in say- 
ing that the death of Christ saves no man ; the Calvinist gives 
the truest and safest statement when he says the Atonement 
is intrinsically sufficient for all men but efficaciously applied 
to only some men. As a matter of fact, all men are not saved 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience \6j 

by the death of Christ but some men are really and truly 
saved by that death. The formula interpretative of the Atone- 
ment ought to be in accord with facts. "Sufficiently for all, 
efficiently for some" — that is the formula which will now be 
defended. 

I. Proofs of Limitationism. 

Since the formula of Calvinistic Limitationists is, "Suffi- 
ciently for all, efficiently for some," let us take up its two 
qualifying adverbs and expound the meaning of the interpre- 
tative phrase. In what sense did Christ die "sufficiently" for 
all men? What is meant when it is said that he died "effi- 
ciently" for some men? A clear statement of the meaning of 
Calvinism will greatly assist the defence of this point, per- 
haps the most offensive tenet in all its system. 

I. A Sufficient Atonement. — Sufficiency is a quantitative 
term. It signifies that the supply of whatever is under consid- 
eration is abundant for all purposes in question. To say that 
the air is sufficient for all men means that there is an abund- 
ance of this necessary of life. To say that there is water 
enough in the Mississippi river for all the world means that 
all the world could draw all their supplies from this source 
without exhausting it; of course it does! not mean that the 
water in this particular river on the North American conti- 
nent is available to all the inhabitants of the globe. To say 
that there is gold enough in the world to pay all the debts 
of all men means that the supply of this precious metal is 
great enough to meet all such demands ; of course it does not 
mean that every debtor has access to all this wealth. So 
sufficient Atonement is one whose intrinsic value is equal to 
the payment of all the debts of all sinners, that its worthful- 
ness is so great that God's government would not be cheated 
if the death of Christ were accepted in lieu of the death of all 
men. Our soteriology teaches that the Atonement of Christ 
possesses an infinite value and of course has an intrinsic pur- 
chasing power great enough to purchase redemption for every 



1 68 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

individual in this world, or ten thousand worlds like it. The 
meritoriousness of it is simply inexhaustible. This is but an- 
other way of saying that Christ has done enough to save the 
whole world of sinners. Or to drop into a Scripture figure : 
Christ by his death has opened up a way into the holy place 
of God's presence; the way is wide enough for every son of 
Adam ; and yet, if there had been a purpose in the divine 
mind to save but one soul, if there were but one man to walk 
that new and living way, it would have been, and necessarily, 
just as wide as it is now. A sufficient way is one wide enough 
to permit every man to walk therein. A bridge from earth 
to heaven sufficient for all men would be one wide enough 
and strong enough to accommodate the entire human race. 
An intrinsic sufficiency is what a thing is in its own 
capability. The ship of Zion is large enough and strong 
enough to carry the entire race as a cargo from earth to 
heaven. 

This is what Calvinists mean by a sufficient Atonement. 
Here there is no limitation, no restriction. It is not simply 
universal, it is infinite. They use the largest, most unbounded 
word in all the vocabulary with which to express the idea. 

2. An Efficient Atonement. — But manifestly there is a deep 
distinction between an "efficient" Atonement and one which is 
merely* "sufficient." That is efficient which does something, 
produces an effect. That army is efficient which wins the vic- 
tory. That water is efficient which slakes the thirst. That money 
is efficient which pays the debt. A ton of dynamite is sufficient 
to blow up a thousand buildings, but it is only efficient for the 
destruction of the particular building in which it was exploded. 
The death of Christ is sufficient for the salvation of the entire 
race, but it is effective only in the salvation of a portion of the 
race. To say that Christ is a sufficient Saviour of the world 
is to say that he is a capable Redeemer ; but to say that he is an 
efficient Saviour of the world is to say that he is the actual Re- 
deemer of the whole world. In order, then, for a sufficient 
Saviour to become an efficient Saviour the merits of his aton- 
ing death must be applied ; and if they are applied to all men, 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 169 

all will be saved, and if they are applied to some men some 
will be saved, and if they are applied to no man, no man will be 
saved. A sufficient Saviour has an abundant saving power, but 
an efficient Saviour is one who applies his saving power to the 
actual salvation of men. 

Our Calvinism, then, teaches that Christ is a sufficient Sa- 
viour for all men, but that he is an efficient Saviour for only some 
men. He died sufficienter pro omnibus, sed efficienter tantum pro 
electis. What difference can it make by what name you call the 
some for whom he died efficiently? Called by any name, or by 
no name, the fact remains the same, that he died efficiently for 
them. 

The issue between the three leading schools of soteriologists 
may be restated, for there is an argument in getting the matter 
in debate clearly defined. The Universalist teaches that Christ 
died efficiently for all men — that he applied the saving merits 
of his atoning death, not to its exhaustion, for it is infinite, but 
just as long as there was a member of the human family seen 
in fact or in the decree of God. The Arminian tells us that 
this is a mistake; that Christ did not die efficiently for any per- 
son, but only sufficiently for all; that the atonement makes all 
men salvable, but actually saves no man; that it devolves upon 
the will of the sinner to translate a sufficient atonement into an 
efficient atonement, to convert salvability into salvation. The Cal- 
vinist plants himself between these two extremists and teaches 
what seems so obvious, that Christ made a sufficient atonement 
for the whole world but an effective atonement for only a part 
of the world. So Christ does save somebody, but he does not 
save everybody. 

The same issue between these ruling theories of redemption 
may be stated from another point of viw. All are agreed that 
the Atonement of our Lord is of infinite intrinsic value, and that 
consequently God has the resources at hand with which to save 
the entire race. Why are not all saved under the circumstances? 
God has the power, both the dunamis and the exousia; he cer- 
tainly is good hearted, and desires the death of no man. The 
Universalist squares himself and affirms that absolutely all will 



170 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

surely be saved, because God has both the heart and the power 
to do it. He prefers to address himself to the explanation of 
those portions of Scripture which seem to teach that some are 
lost than to combat those difficulties which confront the limita- 
tionists. Either God, since the Atonement of our Lord, could 
save all men, but will not ; or he would save all men but cannot. 
If he would do so but is limited in his power he is not almighty 
and the atonement is not infinite in its subjective extent. If, on 
the contrary, he could save all men but will not, then he is not 
supremely good. The Universalist says both dilemmas involve 
God in serious criticism, and so he declines to take either horn 
and escapes by boldly affirming that he can, will, and does save 
all men. The Calvinist holds that God can save all men, be- 
cause the Atonement of Christ is infinite and inexhaustible ; God's 
saving power is without limit; consequently it must be because, 
for unrevealed reasons, he will not apply it to all men. The 
Arminian takes the horn of the dilemma and tells us that God 
does not apply the atonement at all to any man, because he can- 
not ; he is hedged and limited by the free will of the sinner. They 
prefer to deny the divine independence, and teach that God is 
conditioned and hedged in his actions by his creatures. In other 
words, rather than teach a doctrine of limited atonement, they 
prefer to teach a doctrine of a limited and constrained God. 

Sufficiency is intensive ; efficiency is extensive ; a sufficient 
atonement is so described with reference to the intrinsic depth 
of the saving power contained in it and an efficient atonement 
is so described with reference to the width of the application of 
the saving power which it contains. Sufficiency is subjective ; 
efficiency is objective; a sufficient atonement is so described be- 
cause of the subjective meritoriousness which it contains; an effi- 
cient atonement is so called because of the objective effects which 
it produces in the persons upon which it terminates. The atone- 
ment of our Lord in extent is limited ; in intent it is unlimited. 
Subjectively it is unlimited; objectively it is limited. The Cal- 
vinistic formula is "Sufficient for all, efficient for some." 

3. Proofs of Limited Efficient Atonement. — The purpose, 
then, of the following arguments is not to prove that the sub- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 171 

jective and intrinsic value of the atonement is limited, but to 
establish the fact that it is limited in its effectiveness — to show 
that it saves some, but not all. 

(1) A limited salvation necessarily implies a limited atone- 
ment. Salvation is effect ; atonement is cause. We are saved by 
and through and on account of the atonement. If I sin against 
my neighbor, and then offer him a fair and full atonement for 
my offence, and he accept my offering, he is in honor bound to 
declare himself satisfied, and be at one with me. Atonement 
means at-one-ment, and my offering to him is the means by 
which I am made at one with him, the means by which the at- 
one-ment is brought about. If I make the offering not for my- 
self alone, but for my ten associates in the sin which I com- 
mitted and the offering is accepted as a satisfactory atonement 
for the entire party, the offended party is bound to be recon- 
ciled to us all. Christ made himself an offering to God against 
whom man had sinned ; by that offering of himself he sought to 
make an atonement; it was accepted as such, and God is bound 
by his word and covenant to be satisfied, to be reconciled, to be 
propitiated, to be placated. If Christ made that offering for him- 
self alone, the effect was to bring him and God into harmonious 
and happy relations ; if he made it for himself and for ten other 
men, and it was accepted, God must be reconciled to the ten ; if 
he made it for fifty, then fifty are reconciled ; if he made it for 
all men, then all men are necessarily reconciled to God. This 
argument is leveled especially at the Arminian, and is designed 
as an argumentum ad hominem to show that he cannot be a 
limitationist in salvation unless he is first a limitationist as to the 
atonement. If Christ, in offering himself as a sacrifice to God, 
which God joyfully accepted as fully adequate, represented all 
men, then God must declare himself satisfied with respect to 
all men, and that ends the matter; they must all be saved. The 
Arminian seeks to evade the argument, by saying that God's ac- 
ceptance of Christ is conditional ; that he agrees to accept the 
offering of Christ as a satisfactory atonement, provided each 
sinner will repent and believe and persevere in evangelical obedi- 
ence unto the end ; that is, God will accept the death of Christ 



172 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

as a satisfactory atonement for Judas if Judas will accept it 
also, but if Judas rejects it, God will reject it also. So God's 
acceptance of the offering of Christ as a satisfactory atonement 
is made to depend upon Judas and all sinners ; if they reject 
Jesus, so will God ; if his death is unsatisfactory to them, so 
will it be to him. This is monstrous ; God judges the death of 
Christ as a satisfactory atonement, irrespective of what Judas 
and other sinners may think about it. Christ offers himself a 
sacrifice to satisfy divine justice ; either it satisfies it, or it does 
not. If it satisfies his justice, of which God is the sole judge, 
why then it satisfies him, and that is the end of the controversy. 
And if it does not satisfy him, then the offering is rejected as 
unsatisfactory. There is no escape from it; the atonement is 
limited in its effectiveness or universalism is the logical result. 

To clear and strengthen the argument, some figures of speech 
may be employed. Atonement-making is debt-paying; if Christ 
paid the debt of all men, then all are freed from debt ; and if 
he paid the debt of some men, then the debts of that some are 
extinguished ; but if he paid the debts of no man, then no man's 
debt is cancelled, and the greatest effect of the death of Christ 
is to make the debts of some or of all payable. If this Arminian 
representation of the case is correct, a sound use of language 
requires us to cease speaking of the death of Christ as an atone- 
ment and compels us to think of it and to treat it as merely pro- 
visory of atonement ; that is, the death of Christ really atones 
for no man's sin, but renders every man's sin atonable, which is 
the same thing as saying that the death of Christ really and truly 
pays the debt of no man but has the effect of rendering the debts 
of all men payable. 

Again : Atonement-making is but the reconciling of es- 
tranged persons. If Christ made an Atonement, he reconciled 
God and the sinners for whom he transacted and did not -merely 
render them reconcilable. If therefore the Atonement was made 
for all men, all are reconciled to God ; if for some men, then 
some are reconciled to God. Atonement is reconciliation, not re- 
con cilableness. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 173 

Again : Atonement-making is the propitiation of God ; it 
propitiates, and does not simply render propitiationable. If the 
Atonement were made for all men, then God is propitiated to- 
wards all men. Atonement is propitiation; not propitiationable- 
ness. 

Again : Atonement-making is but another name for the 
mode of salvation ; it is salvation, not salvability ; it is fact, not 
mere possibility; redemption, not redemptibility. Consequently 
if the atonement is universal, salvation, redemption, is universal. 
Salvation is as wide as the efficiency of the atonement. 

I come back then to repeat that limited salvation implies a 
limited atonement — limited in its efficiency, limited in its ef- 
fectiveness, limited in its application, however unlimited it may 
be in its subjective and intrinsic nature. Sufficient for all, efficient 
for some. An Atonement which is merely sufficient effects noth- 
ing; an Atonement which is merely efficient, saves all men; an 
atonement which is sufficient for all but efficient for some, is 
one that is able to save all men, but actually saves some men. 

This is the argument of limitationists founded upon the 
nature and meaning of the Atonement. 

(2) But this argument from the very idea and meaning of 
the word atonement does not safeguard the limitationist against 
the pure and proper Universalist, because he heartily subscribes 
to the Calvinist's interpretation of the nature of the Atonement 
as a bona fide satisfaction of justice, law, and all the claims of 
God against the sinner. Atonement has been made for all ; there- 
fore all must be saved upon precisely the same principles upon 
which some are saved according to the Calvinist. So the next 
argument parolled by Limitationists is the argument from Elec- 
tion. That doctrine has already been proved, and the argu- 
ment must not be reproduced in this place ; but accepting it as a 
fact it defines the beneficiaries of the Atonement. The Atone- 
ment actually saves all those for whom it was efficaciously made ; 
the reason it does not save all men is because God has not desig- 
nated all men. Consequently an Atonement which in itself is 
sufficient for all men, is efficacious for only some men, by divine 
destination. This is but saying that if God had appointed all 



174 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

men as the constituents of Christ under the covenant of grace, he 
would have been faithful to his promise and saved them all. The 
Atonement is as wide as the covenant of grace. It cannot be 
wider. The Atonement is a means for accomplishing what is 
engaged in the covenant of redemption ; Christ died to fulfill his 
pactional obligations under that covenant ; the effectiveness of 
his death is co-extensive with the limits of the covenant. The 
sufficiency of the Atonement is due to its infinite value ; the effi- 
ciency of the Atonement is due to its application, and it is 
applied by the will of God, and it is applied to the elect only. 
The Atonement is as wide as God's electing love, as wide as 
the boundaries of his covenant of grace. The limitation and 
particularism in the Atonement is but the logical outcropping of 
a limitation which began in the purpose of God. The reason 
that the plan does not ultimate in the salvation of all men is be- 
cause it was not pitched upon that scale. The house is built ac- 
cording to the plans of the architect; if there is not a chamber 
in it for every person, it is because the number of apartments in 
the sketch which Christ received from his Father contained direc- 
tions for a limited number of chambers. Universalism at the 
end implies universalism in the beginning, and limitationism in 
the end implies limitationism in the beginnng. This is true 
upon the indisputable principle that what is last in execution 
was first in intention. 

If we look at the end of God's plan of redemption we find 
that only a portion of the race is actually saved in heaven ; if we 
look back at the beginning of God's plan, we find that he 
elected as the beneficiaries of his covenant of grace only a por- 
tion of mankind. So interpreted, the end is as the beginning 
and the beginning is as the end. The intention matches the 
execution, and the execution is as the intention. Salvation is 
as big at the Day of Judgment as it was in the Council of eter- 
nity. It is as wide at one end as it is at the other. It is- not 
like a cone, wide in the heart of God and narrow in its consum- 
mation at the Judgment; it is like a perfect cube, the same size 
at its beginning in the mind of God as it is at the end of 
human history. If, therefore, it is universalism in the begin- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 175 

ning, it must be universalism at the day of Judgment; if it is 
limitationism at the finish it must have been limitationism at the 
start. 

Looking at the end, the Arminian sees that the scheme is 
limited in its consummation but predicates that it began as un- 
limited and got contracted in its execution. The Universalist 
looking at the beginning sees the scheme drawn in the thought 
of God as race-wide, and insists that it terminates upon the 
same scale upon which it began, and so all men are somehow 
saved in spite of all that the Scriptures may say to the contrary. 
The Calvinist looking at the end of the Plan, sees that it is 
limited in its final execution and reasons that it ends as it started ; 
limited election, limited atonement ; as wide at one end as it is 
at the -other; as limited in conception as it is in execution and as 
universal in execution as it was in conception. 

(3) The first argument of limitationists stands by the end 
of the completed scheme of salvation and finds as a matter of 
historic fact that only a part of our race are actually saved and 
from that fact reasons backward to the conclusion that the 
Atonement was limited in its design. The second argument 
plants itself at the very beginning of the scheme as it took its 
rise in the divine mind and finds that God elected some and 
not all and reasons forward to the conclusion of a limited Atone- 
ment. The third argument plants itself in the bosom of God 
and affirms that the Atonement is as wide as the Love of God, 
and denies that it is any wider. The boundaries of Jehovah's 
heart are the boundaries of Calvary's efficiency. But the love 
of God for sinners is not indiscriminate and universal ; that 
very love is elective, discriminative and particular ; consequently 
to affirm that the Atonement is universal and indiscriminate is 
to affirm that the gift of love is larger than love itself. A 
limited love necessitates a limited Atonement and a universal 
love necessitates a universal atonement. No man can demand 
a largeness larger than the heart of God, and no Calvinist con- 
tends for a narrowness narrower than his love. 

Is the divine love for sinners general, indefinite, universal? 
Does he love all the race with an equal heart? Does he give 



176 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

his heart alike to the godly and the ungodly, to the holy and the 
unholy, to the lovely and the unlovely, to the saint and the sinner, 
to the elect and non-elect, to the men in heaven as to the men 
in hell? Does he give the same quantity and quality of affec- 
tion to the members of this race universally without distinction? 
Or are there some members of the race which he, for reasons, 
loves more and differently from others? Are there some Chris- 
tians whom he loves more than other Christians? Are there 
some sinners whom he loves more than he does other sinners? 
Are there some sinners whom he does not love at all ? Are there 
some sinners whom he hates with righteous indignation? In 
time is his love universal and indiscriminate? In eternity was 
it similarly indeterminate, undefined, irrational, blind, ubiquitous ? 
I have asked this running series of questions to show that a 
universal and indiscriminate and indefinite love is a weakness 
and not a virtue, a blemish and not a perfection of character. 
The love that has absolutely no limits, cannot appreciate the dis- 
tinction between the beautiful and the ugly, between right and 
wrong, between goodness and badness. Such a love is color- 
blind and its subject is maudlin. 

There are two fundamental forms of feeling in God — love 
and wrath 'agape and 'orge. These emotions are real and 
essential in God. The existence of the one necessitates the exist- 
ence of the other; so that if there be in him a love of righteous- 
ness there must be in him the hatred of unrighteousness. If 
there be in him no power to be angry at sin, there is no power 
to be pleased at obedience. "He who loves the good by this very 
fact hates the evil; and he who does not hate the evil does not 
love the good ; because the love of goodness issues directly out 
of the hatred of evil, and the hatred of evil issues directly out 
of the love of goodness. No one can love life without abhor- 
ring death ; and no one can have) an appetency for light without 
an antipathy to darkness.* This principle is affirmed , cate- 
gorically by the Scriptures. "All they that hate me love death;" 
"Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." 



*Shedd, Vol. I., p. 174. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 177 

Dr. Shedd beautifully says, "Complacency towards righteous- 
ness and displacency towards sin are not contraries, but oppo- 
sites, or antitheses. . . . The relation of opposites or anti- 
theses is that of polarity. Moral love and moral wrath are 
like two poles, north and south, of the same magnet, or the 
two manifestations, positive and negative, of the same electric- 
ity. Boreal magnetism is as really magnetism as austral ; and. 
positive electricity is as really electricity as negative. So, also, 
moral wrath is as truly holiness as moral love. . . . Accord- 
ingly, the two feelings of love of holiness and hatred of evil 
coexist in the character of, God, the most perfect of beings, and 
in that of angels and redeemed men. Human character is worth- 
less, in proportion as abhorrence of sin is lacking in it." 

Moral love and moral wrath are but the two sides of the 
same attribute, the obverse and the reverse; but the two hemi- 
spheres of the same spherical perfection. The one is awakened 
by righteousness, the other by sin. They are essential aspects 
of the divine character; they are not optional properties of his 
heart. Whatever is holy must give pleasure, and whatever is 
wicked must cause indignation, just because he is God. 

The Scriptures support this interpretation of the divine 
character. An examination of any large concordance will show 
the student that the "anger" and "wrath" of God and their va- 
rious! cognates and synonyms occur as often and as emphatically 
as do "love" and "mercy" and the whole group of his amiable 
perfections. "Wrath is gone out from the Lord;" "The wrath 
of God is revealed from heaven" ; "God is angry with the wicked 
every day." Of course there are a number of familiar texts 
which teach us "God is love." When, therefore, we think of 
the "fierceness of his anger" we must think of the tenderness 
of his love, for these are but the two sides of his moral emotion. 

Time was when God's love was universal; it was when he 
foresaw all men as creatures in his image and likeness, holy 
as he was holy; then he loved all without distinction of person 
because all were good and lovely. Time was again when his 
wrath was universal; it was when all sinned in Adam and fell 
with him in his first transgression; then his anger was against 



178 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

every man because all were guilty and polluted before him. He 
could not hate any when all were holy ; and he could not love 
any when all were sinful. Time was again when he foresees 
the entire race divided into two classes — the elect and the non- 
elect. These two classes, while their constituent members re- 
main the same, are variously designated in the Scriptures ; friends 
and enemies ; sheep and goats ; children of God and children of 
the Devil ; servants of Christ and servants of sin ; freemen in 
Christ Jesus and bondmen to Satan ; spiritual men and natural 
men; Church and world; believers and unbelievers; penitents 
and impenitents ; Israelites and Gentiles ; circumcised and uncir- 
cumcised ; citizens of the kingdom of God and foreigners; God's 
people and aliens. Many are the appellations given to the two 
classes, but the same persons are unchangeably designated. One 
of these classes is the unchanging object of God's love and the 
other class is immutably the object of his wrath. It must be so 
because he sees truly and feels accurately. When the race had 
a common state in holiness as in Eden, his love was universal; 
when the same race had a common state in sin as in the fall 
antecedently to election, his wrath was universal, and when the 
race is divided into two classes, saints and sinners, his love and 
his wrath both become particular and limited ; he loves one sec- 
tion of the race, and is angry with the other section. One sec- 
tion is seen as in Christ Jesus, and so is lovely, while the other 
section is seen out of Christ and in opposition to him, and they 
are unlovely and the objects of his displacency. 

God's pity is universal, because all men are miserable, but 
his love is sectional, because only a portion of the race is lovely. 
These are lovely because they are seen in Christ Jesus. But 
pity does not help; pity sheds tears, but it does not rescue; pity 
says, "I am sorry for you, but it is not my prerogative to make 
you spiritually beautiful." Love on the other hand, when it 
has the power, saves all that it loves. God does not save all 
that he pities, but he saves every man whom he loves. God 
saves absolutely every person and thing in this world which he 
loves and destroys all that he hates. The Atonement gives him 
the legal right, and through the Holy Spirit he has the dynamic 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 179 

power to save all on this fallen globe which he loves, and there 
are no trophies of his affection in hell; nothing which he wants 
is in that waste-heap. The Atonement is as wide as God's love ; 
but his love is limited and so his Atonement is limited to the 
very same boundaries. 

I know that many theologians affirm the universality of 
God's love in the most unlimited language, and that much preach- 
ing taxes both prose and poetry for rhetorical terms and figures 
with which to declare the unlimited wideness of that love. I 
have searched the Scriptures and the pages of this class of writ- 
ers for proof-texts of the universality of God's love. I do not 
find the texts. Dr. Miley says, "God is Creator and Father of 
all men. There is, therefore, no difference of divine relation- 
ship which could be a reason for limitation in the atonement." 
He grounds the universal love of God in his common Creator- 
ship and common Fatherhood of men ; he loves all men for two 
reasons, first because he made them, and second because he is 
the Father of all. But God is the Creator of the Devil, and our 
Lord expressly said of some men, "Ye are of your father, the 
Devil." 

This same distinguished Arminian, when pressed still further 
to show the universality of God's love in order to ground the 
universality of the atonement therein, says, "It is really voiced 
in the sublime words, 'God is love.' A God of love must pre- 
fer the happiness of all men." But love turned towards the 
guilty and sinful is anger, and would not a God of wrath and 
anger prefer* the death of those whom he cannot abide in his 
sight? At any rate the text, "God is love," does not prove that 
he loves every sinful man, for he distinctly says that he is angry 
with the wicked every day. 

The passage of Scripture which comes nearest to asserting 
the universality of God's love is the famous one, "God so loved 
the world." If the word "world" here means all mankind in- 
discriminately, then the Scriptures do teach that God loves all 
men; but I shall presently take up this passage in another con- 
nection and will there show that it does not mean mankind. We 



180 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

are then shut up to a single proof-text for the universality of 
God's love, and that text, when taken in connection with the 
context, does not teach what is claimed. 

Here then is the staggering difficulty : If God loves all men, 
and has the right through the atonement to save all men, and 
through the Spirit the power to do so, why does he yet send 
some whom he loves to hell? This position will make him for- 
ever a mourner at the gates of hell for his lost loved ones ; he 
could never be happy again, but would always be standing by 
the prison-house of despair rilled with regret and disconsolate- 
ness. How would men feel if the object of their love were in 
misery, and they had the right and the power to rescue? If he 
has both the right and the power to rescue the object of his love, 
we know he would do it. Now God has the right to rescue, 
and he has the power also, because the atonement is sufficient 
for all and the Spirit is Almighty; but then he does not love all 
men ; he saves all whom he loves, and withholds his mercy from 
all whom he righteously hates. Nothing that God loves is in 
hell, or ever will be there. 

Universal love logically leads to a universal atonement ; but 
many who hold to the universality of love deny the universality 
of the atonement and endeavor to save their logic by drawing 
the distinction that God loves the sinner but hates his sin. Sin 
and holiness separated from persons are mere abstractions and 
as such are the objects of neither hate or love. Persons are 
the only objects of moral affections ; the attributes of those per- 
sons make them the objects of moral love or moral wrath. The 
saint is loved because of his goodness; his oerson is the object 
of the love, and his goodness is the ground or reason for the 
love. The sinner is hated on account of his sin : his person is 
the object of the wrath, and his wickedness is the ground or 
reason for it. God is angry with the sinner every day : he is 
angry with the sinner, the person, not with the sin ; he is angry 
with the sinner on account of his sin. "Jacob have I loved, but 
Esau have I hated" — the objects of these two emotions are two 
distinct persons : God loved one of them and hated the other. God 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 181 

blesses what he loves and punishes what he hates ; he blesses 
saints and punishes sinners ; which proves that he loves saints 
and hates sinners. 

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down 
his life for his friends." Christ laid down his life for his friends 
because he loved them and in this way gave to them the greatest 
possible testimony of his affection ; it follows that he did not lay 
down his life for his enemies, because he did not love them. 

The atonement is as wide as God's love ; and through it God 
saves absolutely every man whom he loves. "The question, then, 
respecting the pleasure of the Son has its answer from his love. 
That answer must be decisive. Nor is it in any doubt. The 
Son of God, who in pitying love to sinners parted with his glory 
and humbled himself to the deepest suffering and shame was not 
wanting in redeeming love to all men. And it was his good pleas- 
ure that his atonement should be for all men. His cross so af- 
firms. How does the cross of Christ show the universality of 
Christ's love? There were two thieves crucified with him and to 
one of them he expressed his love most exuberantly, but to the 
other he uttered not one syllable of affection. If he loved both 
alike there is absolutely no proof of it on Calvary. 

The statement of some theologians that love is optional and 
not necessary needs restatement and clarification. "Love," says 
Dr. Strong, "is an attribute, which, like omnipotence, God may 
exercise or not exercise, as he will." Dr. F. L. Patton says, 
"God is bound to be just; he is not bound to be generous. The 
measure of God's benevolence is a matter of option." These state- 
ments are not superficially true. Love, and its counterpart 
wrath, are not voluntary attributes of the divine nature, subject 
to the beck and call of the will, else God could command himself 
to love what is hateful and hate what is lovely. Whatever is 
lovely God must love, and whatever is hateful God must hate. 
He is immutable. He cannot be quiescent and inactive when the 
good and the holy are before his eyes : he may not view these 
qualities with absolute passivity. Nor can he contemplate sin 
and wickedness with passivity of heart : wherever" he sees guilt 
and evil he must, by the very constitution of his own nature, be 



1 82 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

indignant and wrathful towards it. God cannot make himself 
morally colorless by the decrees of his will. He impulsively loves 
the lovely and hates the hateful : otherwise he would not be true 
to himself. If these determinations are true, then since love is 
the impulse to bless and wrath is the impulse to hurt, the object 
of love must be blessed and the object of wrath must be cursed. 
If God loves all men, then all men are blessed : love casts no object 
of its affection to hell. The atonement is coextensive with the 
love of God ; love being limited as to its objects, so is the atone- 
ment limited as to its beneficiaries. All who are "in Christ" are 
the objects of divine complacency; they are "in Christ" by sov- 
ereign election ; and all who are "out of Christ" are the objects of 
divine displacency, and they are "out of Christ" because of his 
pretention. To be "in Christ" is to be lovely, to be an object of 
divine delight, an object of divine blessing. Relations to Jesus 
must be decretively established before there can be love in the 
heart of God for sinners ; some only are elected in Christ Jesus, 
and consequently some only are the objects of God's love. "Jacob 
have I loved, but Esau have I hated ;" atonement was made for 
Jacob, but not for Esau ; atonement can not be wider than love ; 
the gift can not be larger than the heart of the giver. 

(4) The Limitationist next takes his stand by the side of 
his Lord and affirms that the atonement cannot be wider than the 
Intercession of Christ. The argument is a fortiori; If Jesus 
did the greater act of dying for the world of mankind, why should 
he decline to perform the lesser service of praying for them? 
What would be thought of the man who would lay down his life 
for his friend that he might rescue him but who would not pray 
for his deliverance? If we can so interpret Christ, then we 
have no assurance that he who died for us will finally save us; 
though he has made the supreme gift of himself he may yet 
withhold the lesser gift of heaven. "He that spared not his own 
Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also .freely 
give us all things?" The gift of Christ carries every lesser 
blessing of redemption with it. If we have the sun we have his 
rays ; if we have the fountain we have all the stream ; if Christ is 
ours all things are ours. All things are yours, and ye are Christ's 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 183 

and Christ is God's. If Jesus died for me he will certainly pray 
for me. 

Then does he pray for all men or does he exclude some men 
from his petitions? We have a distinct pronouncement on this 
subject from the lips of our Lord, given under the most impressive 
circumstances. "I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but 
for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine." And 
what is the prayer which he offers for those who had been given 
him? "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, 
be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which 
thou hast given me : for thou lovedst me before the foundation of 
the world." He denies that he prays for the world; he affirms 
that he prays for that portion of the world which had been given 
to him. The circumstances are most solemn : it is our Lord's 
last night on the earth : he recognizes that his hour has come and 
that before the morrow's sun has set he will be dead. When we 
approach the grave our hearts soften and include in our last 
wishes the largest possible number of friends and acquaintances. 
Few men are willing to die in anger with their fellows. But 
Christ distinctly shuts the world out of his prayers. If the 
"world" here meant all men, then none would have a place in his 
intercession ; so it here stands for the world of non-elect sinners. 

It does not modify this interpretation to be told that Christ 
on the succeeding afternoon prayed for the very men who were 
nailing him on the cross : "Father forgive them, for they know 
not what they do." If this was more than a mere wish of his 
human tenderness, and I believe it was a mediatorial official peti- 
tion, all that is proved is that these very murderers were among 
the number "given" to Christ and so are the beneficiaries of his 
atoning grace. These executioners did what they did by the "de- 
terminate counsel and foreordination" of God; now if it turns out 
that they were themselves the elect of God, then the crucifixion 
took place at the hands of the very men who were to be its greatest 
beneficiaries : those selected by divine decree to be the instruments 
of the crucifixion were themselves elected to be the supremest 
beneficiaries of their own act. What greater trophy of grace 
than the red-handed murderers of our Lord around the throne 



184 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

of glory ! What a commentary upon the love of God ! And 
cannot grace rescue these as well as any other murderers and sin- 
ners ? Because, then, he prayed on the cross for his executioners 
is no proof that he prays for the "world" as contrasted with those 
"given" to him. He does not repent of his narrowness of Thurs- 
day night when he hung on the cross on the following Friday 
afternoon. The prayer on the cross rather classifies his execu- 
tioners among "those given to him" than contracts his dogmatic 
declaration the day before in which he said he did not pray for 
the world. 

There is no better accepted tenet of our theology than that the 
intercessions of Christ are always prevalent. He never prayed, 
and never can pray, an unanswerable prayer. "Ye ask and re- 
ceive not because ye ask amiss" : Christ cannot ask "amiss." He 
is too wise; he is too much in sympathy with God to misunder- 
stand; he cannot blunder. "Him the Father heareth always." 
If Christ prays for the whole world of mankind, and if his 
prayers are always successful in obtaining what they seek, then 
salvation must be universal. So the Limitationist puts no other 
restrictions upon the atonement of Christ than our Lord himself 
put upon his own prayers. Calvinists are limitationists as to the 
Atonement because Christ is a limitationist as to his prayers. 

(5) The fifth argument seeks to ascertain the scope of the 
Atonement by studying the ritual of sacrifice in the Old Testa- 
ment. The form under which God sought to acquaint men 
with his scheme of salvation at the first was the clear and simple 
method of illustration, of symbol, picture, type, significant action. 
It was a method of dramatizing the the plan that men might the 
more clearly understand it by seeing it enacted before their eyes. 
Consequently, in so debated a matter as the extent of the Atone- 
ment, we ought to return to the very simplest and most elemen- 
tary form of its revelation with the hope of finding the question 
there determined. So Limitationists feel strong in their interpre- 
tation when they carry the debate to the ritual of Old Testament 
sacrifice, for therein the scope and efficaciousness of the Atone- 
ment is made to appear particular and not general, restricted 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 185 

and not universal. Let us take as an illustration the ritual of the 
Great Day of Atonement. 

On that day Aaron was to take two goats of the congrega- 
tion of Israel and perform upon them a certain significant ritual. 
"The sacrifice consisted of two, merely from the natural impossi- 
bility of otherwise giving a full representation of what was to be 
done ; the one being designed more especially to exhibit the means, 
the other the effect, of the atonement." One was to be killed in 
order to get blood to typify the sprinkling of the blood of the 
Lamb of God and to teach the New Testament doctrine that "with- 
out shedding of blood is no remission" ; the other was to symbol- 
ize the bearing away of the sins of those who were represented by 
him into the land of forgetfulness. The death of the first goat 
secured for the high priest the right to send the living goat away 
into the wilderness. "Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the 
head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of 
the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, 
putting them upon the head of the goat . . . And the goat shall 
bear upon him all the iniquities unto a land not inhabited." The 
slaughtered goat typified the means of atonement and the "scape 
goat" the effects of atonement. 

Now what was the scope of this transaction? Whose sins 
were carried into the wilderness? The same law which prescrib- 
ed the ritual defines its beneficiaries : "and this shall be an ever- 
lasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children 
of Israel, for all their sins, once a year." In the ritual Aaron 
"put' all the sins and iniquities of "the children of Israel" upon 
the head of the "scape goat," and their sins and theirs alone were 
carried into oblivion. The Canaanites and the Amalekites, the 
Philistines and the Egyptians, were not represented in the trans- 
action, except insofar as they had become through proselytism 
members of the congregation of Israel, and consequently the 
atonement was not made for them. The blood of the slaughtered 
goat was sufficient for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews and the 
"scape goat" was able to carry all the sins of all the Gentiles as 
well as of all Israel. The transaction did not avail for the Gen- 
tiles, not because it was insufficient, but because Aaron did not 



1 86 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

"put" their sins upon the head of the "scape goat" ; and Aaron did 
not "put" their sins upon him because he was not authorized to 
make atonement for any other portion of the world than that 
known as the "congregation of the children of Israel." That 
transaction was sufficient for Jews and Gentiles, but it was effi- 
cient for Jews only. 

All this is a lesson in picture of the atonement of our Lord. 
Christ persistently declares that all the Old Testament Scriptures, 
in all their parts — Law, Prophets, Psalms — "witness" concerning 
him ; all the sacrificial language of the Old Testament is constantly 
employed by the New Testament to exhibit the nature of Christ's 
work in saving sinners ; Paul expressly says that these Old Testa- 
ment usages "are a shadow of things to come, but the body is 
Christ." The New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old 
Testament is revealed in the New. The Old Testament is the 
gospel in figure and the New is the same gospel in prose. So of 
all the Old Testament sacrifices and rituals. 

Now the argument is that the atonement of the New Testa- 
ment is no wider than the atonement of the Old Testament. In 
the former economy the scope of the atonement was limited to 
the congregation of the children of Israel ; Aaron "put" the sins 
of those so designated on the head of the "scape goat" and those 
sins were carried away into the wilderness, and the sins of the 
remainder of mankind were left upon their own heads untrans- 
ferred. The "congregation of the children of Israel" was typical 
of the true Church of God. The lesson is that the sins, all the 
sins, of the people of God were "put" upon the head of the "scape 
goat," which is Christ, and by him borne out of the sight of God. 
As the goats did for literal Israel, so does Christ do for the 
spiritual Israel. 

But there is no need to prolong the reasoning ; it is con- 
ceded that the redemptive provisions of the Old Testament were 
restricted; the contention of all grades of universalists is that 
the God of the New Testament is a broader God than the God of 
the Old Testament. But those who can receive the doctrine of 
the immutability of God, and who can believe that the Old is but a 
figure and pattern of the New, are compelled to accept the con- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 187 

elusion that the atonement of the New, like the atonement of the 
Old Testament, is limited in its efficaciousness while it is un- 
limited and all-sufficient in its worthfulness. This is but saying 
that, as the "scape goat" had the strength to carry the sins of the 
Gentiles as well as those of the Jews, so Christ has the power to 
bear the sins of all men as well as those of the elect ; and, as a 
matter of fact, the "scape goat" actually bore the sins of Israel 
only, so Christ as a matter of fact bore the sins of his spiritual 
Israel, otherwise called the elect. "Sufficient for all, efficient for 
some" — is alike the doctrine of the atonement in both the Old 
and the New Testaments : one is the shadow of the other : they 
differ only in form. 

(6). The sixth argument of the Limitationists as against 
all Universalists rests upon specific Scripture texts. I quote them 
from that master of Calvinism, one of Geneva's illustrious teach- 
ers, Francis Turretin : "The mission and death of Christ are re- 
stricted to a limited number, delineated under the character of the 
people of Christ, the sheep of Christ, his friends, the Church, his 
body, etc., but it is nowhere extended to all men severally or col- 
lectively. Thus Christ 'is called Jesus, because he shall save his 
people from their sins.' He is called the 'Saviour of his body' ; 
'The good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep,' and 
'for his friends.' He is said 'to die — that he might gather togeth- 
er in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.' It is 
said that Christ hath 'purchased the church, or his flock with his 
own blood.' If Christ died for every one of Adam's posterity, 
why should the scriptures so often restrict the object of his death 
to a few? How could it with propriety be said absolutely that 
Christ is the Saviour of his people and of his body if he is the 
Saviour of others also? How could it be said in the same way 
that he laid down his life for his sheep, for the sons of God, and 
for the Church if according to the will and purpose of God he died 
for others also? Would this be a greater proof of his love and 
a firmer ground of consolation?" 

While Shedd and the two Hodges and most of our Calvin- 
istic writers esteem this argument highly, Dr. Dabney does not 
think any great deal of it. He says, "the proof of a proposition 



188 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

does not disprove its converse." This logical dictum of Dr. Dab- 
ney is not universally true. He himself holds that the proof of 
the spirituality of God disproves his materiality, that the proof 
of the immortality of the soul is the disproof of its mortality. It 
depends upon the nature of the case, therefore, whether the dis- 
proof of one proposition is the proof of its converse. In this 
particular matter before us the Scriptures prove that Christ 
died for a certain class of men and the circumstances go to show 
that the assertion that he died for some is the assertion that he 
did not die for all. In both Testaments we have the human race 
invariably divided into two sections ; the division line is not 
national nor ethnic, it is not a color nor a social line, but a spiritual 
line. Men's relation to God is the principle of classification. 
Throughout the whole revelation there are those who are desig- 
nated "My People" and those who are "Not My People." To 
claim that God treats all alike is to draw a distinction and then to 
wipe it out. The gift of his Son is the supremest testimonial 
of affection which it is possible for God to make; and to prove 
that he gave that gift to the class called "My People" is to prove 
the converse, namely, that he did not give that gift to those known 
as "Not My People." The distinctions among men are made by 
God according to their relations to Christ; if all men possess 
Christ in the same way, if all have an equal legal title to the atone- 
ment, where is there any difference? How could they then be 
distributed into those who are Christ's and those who are not 
Christ's? They are, according to the hypothesis, all Christ's. 
How can John say, "Christ is mine," in any different sense from 
that in which Judas could say it ? Is he not a gift to Judas, upon 
the hypothesis, just as much as and to precisely the same extent 
that he is a gift to John ? How then can John claim a proprietor- 
ship in him which may not be equally set up by Judas? John's 
title is created by the deed of gift of God; and according to the 
hypothesis the same deed that conveyed him to John conveyed 
him in the same manner and to the same extent to Judas. It fol- 
lows, therefore, that if Christ is the wedge of cleaveage in the 
human race, and that he is on the side of one party, that he is not 
on the side of the other party. He is not on all sides ; he is on 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 189 

one side or the other; if you prove that he is on the side of his 
friends you certainly prove the converse, that he is not on the 
side of his enemies. If he is the partisan of the righteous he is 
not the partisan of the wicked. If he is on the side of neither the 
righteous nor the wicked, then he is neutral: he is neither the 
friend of the righteous nor the foe of the wicked. If he is on 
both sides, then he is the helper and partisan of both the wicked 
and the righteous and is divided against himself. If he is on the 
side of the righteous he is partisan, and the supremest act of his 
effort, his death, was on the side of the righteous and not on the 
side of the wicked. If he is the partisan- of the sheep he is against 
the goats. If he is the friend of his friends he is the enemy of 
his enemies. He died on his own side and not on every side. He 
sacrificed himself, not in the cause of both sin and righteousness, 
but for the cause of righteousness only; and he did not die for 
abstract righteousness but for righteous men ; and those who are 
righteous are in the divine foresight eternally righteous and are 
called the "elect" when they are looked at as having existence in 
the mind of God, and they are called believers when they are 
viewed in time, and they are called glorified saints when they are 
viewed in their heavenly triumph. Christ is on the side of the 
righteous ; that proves the converse, he is not on the side of the 
wicked ; and he died on the side where his heart was. 

The Arminian does not seek to void the argument by the use 
of the logical formula, that the proof of one proposition is not the 
disproof of its converse, but he seeks to evade it by calling atten- 
tion to the fact that while the Scriptures say that Christ laid down 
his life for the "sheep" they also say that he laid down his life 
for "all men." This objection is more specious than solid. It 
cannot be that Christ laid down his life for the "goats" in the 
same sense in which he laid down his life for the "sheep." To do 
so is to make Christ do as much for one class as for the other ; to 
make him love the "goats" just as much as he loves the "sheep." 
Then, cui bono, what is the advantage of being a "sheep?" No, 
the universality that is taught in the class of Scripture referred to 
is a limited universality, or more accurately, it is a relative and 
not an absolute universality. This will be shown at large, for I 



190 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

shall in another section of this discussion take up each of these 
texts and show by exposition exactly the scope of each one, and 
the exposition will vindicate our Lord from the gross and insult- 
ing and shameful charge of being on the side of everything that 
hath breath, whether it be a God-hating sinner or a glorified 
saint. He has never been on the side of both heaven and hell ; he 
has never been on the side of the population of both heaven and 
hell ; the population of both regions have been eternally known to 
him ; and he has been eternally against the one and on the side of 
the other ; he did not die in his effort to save those who he knew 
were and would always be against God, against heaven, against 
all that was good; he did not plant his cross between them and 
their doom, but on the contrary is himself the Judge who shall 
dismiss these goats from his left hand; he knew them from the 
beginning and has not been beguiled into dying for them; he has 
always known that they would not submit to his rule and author- 
ity but would be steadfastly opposed to him and all that he repre- 
sented ; and yet some men tell us that he went in the face of this 
knowledge which he has always possessed and died for them! 
These same men think God is perilously near to insincerity when 
he preaches the gospel to those who he foreknows will reject 
it ; then what ought they to think of that Lord who dies for men 
who he foreknows will not accept him? The alleged universal- 
ism is apparent only. The truth of the matter is that Christ 
neither provided salvation for his enemies, nor does he cause it 
to be offered to them. The whole scheme of redemption, from 
its conception throughout all the stages of its execution, is limited 
to his people ; for them it is provided and to them only is it to be 
offered. But these points can be better handled in the exposition 
of those texts which are quoted by Arminians and Universalists, 
which will form a section of this discussion. 

4. Resume. — This closes the aggressive argument for Lim- 
itationism. We have stood at the end of God's redemptive plan 
and seen that the actual outcome was limited in the salvation of 
only a portion of the race ; we have then gone back to the be- 
ginning and seen that the plan as it lay in the divine thought was 
limited by a sovereign election and preterition ; we have then 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 191 

dropped down to the center of the motive of the scheme which is 
his love, and found limitation there in the heart of God ; then we 
have stood by the side of Jesus in the holy hour of prayer and 
found him asking for only a limited application of his death ; then 
we turned to God's first revelation of his purpose of salvation in 
the Old Testament pictures, symbols and types and there found 
limitation in the very picture of salvation which he draws ; and 
finally we have interrogated the New Testament scriptures and 
heard them say that Christ laid down his life for "the sheep." So 
far, then, we have no universal principle in the scheme ; but, on 
the contrary, every principle has been definite, particular, limited. 
All the universalism we have encountered so far in this study has 
been in language only. Perhaps this universalism in form is ap- 
parent only. The defensive part of the argument now to be taken 
up will consider carefully these texts which use the dialect of 
universalism and we shall find that God has not said that that was 
universal every principle of which he has taught us was restricted. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Atonement : Disproofs of Universalism 

The Universalist takes his stand at the consummation of 
the scheme of redemption and denies the first argument which 
has been made in this discussion, namely, that as a matter of 
fact only a part of the human family are at last saved. The 
Limitationist and the Universalist are in sharpest collision with 
each other as to the extent of the actual salvation by Christ. 
Believing that all mankind are eventually saved, Universalists 
necessarily believe that the Atonement was unlimited. 

The most plausible and popular form of Universalism is 
the doctrine of Restorationism, or as it was known in its earlier 
days, the doctrine of Apokatastasis. It is believed by this school 
that the Scriptures in teaching the "restitution of all things" in- 
cludes in the all things the human race. Death does not end the 
human probation and fix the final destinies of men. They may 
repent in the disembodied state sooner and more earnestly than 
any do in the embodied state. These notions are held by the 
Universalists and Dunkers in this country and many of the Ra- 
tionalists in Germany. 

The grounds of all varieties of true and proper Universal- 
ism are the following: 

(i) Love is not an attribute of God but his very essence. 
The text, "God is love," is interpreted as defining the inner na- 
ture of the Deity and not one of his many perfections. Conse- 
quently, since God is only and exclusively love, all men must be 
eventually saved through the salutary chastisement and discipline 
of men either in this life or in the disembodied state. Hell can- 
not be the product of love ; and love is God, and God is love. 

(2) Universalism rises out of its peculiar doctrine of an- 
thropology. Man is endowed with a will that has autocratic 
power of his life; nothing is sin but the transgressing acts of 
this will ; an act disappears with the doing of it and has no con- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 193 

tinuity in history or in character ; the obligation to punish exists 
only so long as man continues to (sin ; the moment he ceases to 
transgress the law of God, that instant every reason for penalty 
disappears ; death does not destroy the will, nor change its na- 
ture ; the experiences of the disembodied state are more conducive 
to a cessation of sin than are the conditions of life on the earth ; 
but whenever man stops transgressing he ceases to suffer ; he 
may stop before death, he may stop at death, he may stop ten 
years after death or one hundred years after, but God will afflict 
his person until he does discontinue sin ; then will he be glori- 
fied. So shall it come to pass that sooner or later every mem- 
ber of Adam's race shall be restored to God's favour. 

(3) The third argument for Universalism rises out of a 
peculiar doctrine of the Atonement. As to the nature of the 
Atonement the views of Universalists coincide with those of 
Calvinists ; they hold that the atonement is ia bona fide satisfac- 
tion for sin and actually expiates guilt and propitiates God; that 
the work of Christ is truly and strictly vicarious ; that its effect 
is not salvability but salvation ; but they depart from Calvin- 
ists in holding that in all these atoning* transactions Christ was 
the vicar and substitute, not of some men, but of all men. In 
other words, the Universalist takes the satisfaction theory of the 
Atonement and makes it race-wide in its efficacy ; Jesus died 
efficaciter pro omnibus. His work is in no sense a failure ; it 
is not a partial success ; he came to save all men, not in an in- 
stant of time, but eventually, and he actually accomplishes his 
purpose ; all will be saved through the atonement of Christ. He 
sings, 

"I can but trust that good shall fall 
At last — far off — at last, to all, 
And every winter change to spring." 

(4) The fourth argument of Universalists rests upon cer- 
tain express Scripture texts which they claim dogmatically teach 
that all the race will be ultimately saved. Of these citations the 
following are the strongest. "And, having made peace through 
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto him- 



194 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

self ; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in 
heaven" (Col. 1:20). The sweep of the assertion is absolutely 
all inclusive. The death of Christ brought forth universal peace, 
and all in earth and all in heaven have been reconciled to God; 
and so shall it come to pass that every member of the human 
family shall sooner or later take up his position in the white- 
robed throng that circles the Saviour's throne night and day with 
hymns of gladness and songs of praise. "As in Adam all die, 
even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). Here 
the blessing of Christ is said to be coextensive with the blight of 
Adam. The same "all" that fell in Eden is the "all" that live 
on Calvary. — "If one died for all, then were all dead" (2 Cor. 
5 :i4). God does not desire to put a man to death even once, but 
it would be neither kind nor just to put the same man to death 
twice. All sinned, and all died in Christ for that sin ; every prin- 
ciple of love and fairness protests against any of them being 
put to death in their own persons. Every man's penalty, then, 
has been paid ; it is in the past tense ; there remains no more of 
penalty for him to bear. — "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
will draw all men unto me" (Jno. 12:32). The condition was 
fulfilled; he was lifted up; the promise must now be made good, 
else there is something untrustworthy about his word. He did 
not say he would make all men drawable, nor that he would 
draw some men, but he said he would draw all men. "All" 
means all, and Christ meant what he said. Universalism alone 
honors Christ fully, putting no limitations upon his heart, nor 
upon his word, nor upon his work. — "That in the dispensation 
of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things 
in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, 
even in him" (Eph. 1:10). Christ was not incarnated in the 
beginning but in the "fulness of time," when the hour ripened. 
So all men may not go straight from earth to heaven, but there 
is a predicted hour, a "fulness of the times," when all in heaven 
and in earth shall be united in him. — So the argument concludes 
with the strong declaration of Paul: "Therefore as by the 
offence of one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation; 
even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 195 

men unto justification of life" (Rom. 5:18). The judgment of 
justification is just as wide as the judgment of condemnation. 
Justification is by the Apostle put on top of condemnation, and 
their edges are exactly even ; the condemnation is not the frac- 
tion of an inch larger than the justification. 

2. Counter Proofs. — Now what counterstroke can be de- 
livered to reasoning so plausible and apparently so Scriptural ; 
reasoning, moreover, which accords so delightfully with the nat- 
ural desires of us all? 

(1) The first premise of Universalism must be disposed of 
on the field of theology proper, by giving a sounder interpre- 
tation of God, by showing that love is one of his attributes and 
is not the essence of his character. 

(2) The second premise of Universalism must be disposed 
of by reinterpreting the nature of man and correcting its falla- 
cies as to the nature of sin. Sin is a character as well as an act ; 
then the acts of sin make impressions on character; and then 
the acts of sin live in the history of individuals and cannot be 
thought of as ending in the commission ; they must be dealt 
with as historic facts. Finally the point must be recalled that 
the sinner cannot, according to a sound psychology, discontinue 
his acts of sin at will. All that Scripture which teaches that 
death fixes destiny and puts an end to all possible change in 
character and conduct must be brought in array against this 
second tenet of Universalism. 

(3) The third premise of Universalism cannot be over- 
turned by denying that it has rightly stated the doctrine of the 
nature of the Atonement but by showing that it has unduly 
widened the representative character of Christ. The doctrines 
of election and the covenant of grace must be used to check- 
mate this premise. 

Then it must be borne in mind that a sufficient atonement 
can become an efficient atonement only by an act of faith in the 
sinner. Vicarious atonement without faith is powerless to save, 
because that is the divinely prescribed condition upon which it 



196 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

is efficacious to any man. "It is not the making" of the atone- 
ment, but the trusting in it, that saves the sinner." A loaf of 
bread does not save from starvation the man who does not eat 
it. There may be gold enough in the world to pay all debts, 
but it pays the debt of no man who does not accept it as it is 
tendered to him. 

Then it must be remembered also that a sufficient atone- 
ment does not become an efficient atonement by the mere act 
of the discontinuance of sin, even if that were possible by the 
unaided will either in this state or in the disembodied state. 
The efficacy of the atonement is not conditioned upon a negative 
act but upon a positive act of the acceptance of the sacrifice of 
Christ. 

Then it is to be remembered that Christ did not die tor 
the expiation of sin and guilt in the general, but for the expia- 
tion of the particular guilt of particular men. 

It follows therefore that a sufficient satisfaction is not ipso 
facto an unconditional satisfaction ; nor is this conditional satis- 
faction appropriable by a negative act, the cessation of sinning, 
but by the positive act of believing, which is itself the gift of 
God. A sufficient atonement is not necessarily an efficient atone- 
ment. 

(4) The fourth argument of Universalists which quotes 
specific Scripture must be overthrown in two ways : first by 
showing that there are other specific texts of Scripture that just 
as dogmatically teach limitationism in the final result of the 
scheme of grace ; and second, by showing that the specific texts 
of the Universalist can be harmonized with the specific texts of 
the Limitationists, but that the texts of the Limitationists can- 
not be squared with the interpretation of Universalists. 

Over against the specific text of the Universalist, the Limi- 
tationist sets the following Scriptures : "Whosoever speaketh 
a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but 
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not "be for- 
given him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come" (Matt. 
12:32). Here, then is one class of sinners, at least, which it is 
said by our Lord are unpardonable either here or hereafter. No 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 197 

doctrine of final restoration can be constructed which will put 
this class within the pale of forgiveness. — Here is another class, 
a wider and more numerous class, for whom there is no hope 
either here or hereafter: "Then shall he say also to them on 
the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels ; for I was an hungered, 
and ye gave me no meat, etc." (Matt. 25:41-42). All those who 
did not minister meat and drink and comfort and consolation to 
Christ in the person of his disciples must go away into everlast- 
ing fire ; fire which lasts for ever. Those who do not live ac- 
cording to the principles of our Lord while here on the earth 
are sent away into endless fire. There is no universalism here; 
there is no restorationism held out to these hereafter. — There is 
another specification by our Lord ; this time he calls names : 
"It had been good for that man if he had not been born" (Matt. 
26:24). But if Judas finally reaches heaven, though it be a 
long time after death, though it be through indescribable suffer- 
ing, it would be better for him to have been born. Heaven, if 
rightly appraised, is worth any thing that might be exacted to 
gain it. But if Judas did not carry the act of betrayal into the 
eternal world with him; if the responsibility for an act ceases 
with the commission; then Judas is restorable to the favour of 
God whenever he ceases to betray his Lord, and the last we saw 
of him on the earth he seemed to be satisfied with that form of 
sinning, to be filled with self-loathing and disgust. Having the 
power to discontinue betraying his Lord at any moment, do we 
know from what we last saw of him that he gave up betraying 
at the first possible moment? Upon these premises where is 
there any reason to believe that it took any long time in torment 
to bring Judas to repentance? And if he quit sinning early in 
his post-mortem career, where is there any real truth in saying 
he would have. been better off if he had never been born? — And 
here is still another class whose fate our Lord represents as 
hopeless ; those who live in self-indulgence, who will not lop 
off the right foot, or pluck out the right eye which is offensive 
to God. Concerning them the prophecy is that they shall be 
cast into "hell-fire, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is 



tq8 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

not quenched" (Mark 9:48). These awful negatives of Scrip- 
ture cannot be explained away. — These are all explicit texts, as- 
serting in most emphatic terms that all will not be saved, and 
there is no hope for those who go down in death. These are 
but a few of many. The whole Bible is delivered upon the 
supposition that men are in a real danger of hell. God seems to 
be in earnest, and does not appear to be frightening us with 
what is not likely ever to happen to any of us. 

But Paul must be brought into harmony with Christ; it will 
be noticed that all the texts which have just been cited to show 
that salvation is limited in its results were quoted from our 
Lord, while all the texts for universalism were taken from the 
epistles of Paul. Did Paul misrepresent the Saviour ? 

The most difficult passages to explain are Col. 1 :2o and 
Eph. 1 :io. In one of these places Paul tells us that "all things" 
ta panta in heaven and in earth were reconciled to God, 
and in the other passage he tells us that "all things" are to be 
gathered together in Christ, both the things in heaven and the 
things in earth. These are splendid assertions of the final 
triumph of Christ over all opposition. Do they involve the 
ultimate conversion and restoration to divide favour of all fallen 
angels and fallen men? If the language of these verses might 
be taken by itself, such would be their most natural interpre- 
tation. The terms are the broadest and the assertion is the 
most positive. The passages seem to say that everything in 
heaven and in earth is gathered together into a unity under 
Christ, and then the whole lump reconciled to God by his atone- 
ment. "But two courses seem open to the interpreter — either to 
hold the terms of these passages subject, in concrete application, 
to those modifications which are required by the conditions of 
salvation that the Apostle elsewhere regards as not fulfilled in 
all; or to assert, with Pfleiderer, an insoluble contradiction be- 
tween that harmonious outcome of human history which accords 
with Paul's 'religious speculation' respecting the principle of 
grace and the dualism which corresponds to his legal standpoint 
of moral reflection."* Olshausen and others are sure that these 



*Pauline Theology, Stevens, p. 366. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 199 

passages teach nothing but the widest and most universal resto- 
rationism, but such an interpretation cannot be brought into 
agreement with Paul's own doctrine of man, of salvation, and 
of judgment ; much less can it be made to harmonize with the 
teachings of his Lord. 

"Before the entrance of sin all created beings and things 
were undividedly united under God's government; all things in 
the world were normally combined into organic unity for God's 
ends and in his service. But through sin this original union 
and harmony was broken, first of all in heaven, where a part 
of the angels sinned and fell away from God ; these formed 
under Satan the kingdom antagonistic to God, and upon earth 
brought about the fall of man, extended their sway farther and 
farther, and were even worshipped in the heathen idols. . 
The redeeming work of Jesus Christ was designed to annul 
again this divided state in the universe, which had arisen through 
sin in heaven and upon earth, and to re-establish the unity of 
the kingdom of God in heaven and on earth ; so that this gath- 
ering together again should rest on, and have its foundation 
in, Christ as the central point of union and support, without 
which it could not emerge."* These passages then may be 
taken to teach the centralization of the entire universe in Christ, 
and through him the harmonizing of the entire disturbed order 
in the universal dominion of God. Suppose a great military 
leader rises up when the affairs of the country are in confusion 
and law and order are in contempt and there is a general reign 
of anarchy and confusion ; this leader assembles an army and 
by the sacrifice of many lives re-unites the land, restores uni- 
versal order and brings in a reign of peace and happiness; men 
say, "He gathered all together, and reconciled all the discordant 
elements, saved the whole country and made it happy." Yet 
many lives were lost in order to restore universal order. This 
is what our Lord has done ; restored order throughout the uni- 
verse and reconciled an estranged and hostile world to God. 
But the passages do not warrant the conclusion, in the light of 



* Meyer, Eph. 1 :io. 



200 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

other portions of the Scriptures, that in making such a uni- 
versal restoration no sinful life was lost. The man who would 
not be pacified had to be destroyed, and is destroyed. 

I do not think the other proof -texts of Universalism so 
difficult of harmonizing with the eschatology of our Lord. "As 
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." The 
meaning of this oft-quoted and much-abused text can be made 
clear by simply transposing the order of the words, which the 
original Greek allows : "As all in Adam die, even so shall all 
in Christ be made alive." Who then died in Adam? "All who 
were in him." Who are made alive in Christ? "All who are 
in him." The parallelism is thus exact. 

The same key unlocks the text, "If one died for all, then 
were all dead." If Christ died for all those whom he represented 
in the covenant of grace, then all for whom he died are dead 
and do not have to die again. Such is the ordinary and regular 
interpretation of the Calvinists by which they seek to square 
the universalism of Paul with the limitationism of Christ. As 
by the disobedience of one man, Adam, the judgment of con- 
demnation came upon all the men whom he represented, namely, 
the entire race, so by the obedience of one, Christ, the judgment 
of justification came upon all the men whom he represented, 
namely, the elect, or the designated beneficiaries of the cove- 
nant of grace. 

Christ said he would draw "all men unto him." Did he so 
draw Judas to himself as to save him? Does he so draw those 
who have committed the "unpardonable sin" as to pardon them? 
Does he draw those to his saving arms whom he dismisses from 
his left hand on the day of judgment? In zeal for a theological 
dogma shall we make our Lord contradict himself? Our Lord 
had just said, "Now is the judgment or condemnation of this 
world ; now shall the prince of this world be cast out." Then 
he adds, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto, me." 
Those whom he is to draw are contrasted with the condemned 
world, with those who are not the subjects of the prince of this 
world. The "world" and those who belong to it as contrasted 
with the Church and those who belong to it are condemned, 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 201 

and the prince of the world and those who are his subjects are 
to be cast out; then those whom Christ will draw to himself are 
those who are not part of the condemned world and not sub- 
jects to the cast out prince. He will draw, then, all unworldly 
men to himself ; and they are worldly men who belong to this 
fallen system, who have no place in the redemptive plan of God, 
whose life and destiny is bound up in this present sinful world. 
Christ will condemn and cast out all the "worldly" and draw to 
his own heart all who are "unworldly." A "worldly" man is a 
lawful subject of the Prince of this world and an "unworldly" 
man is one whose Lord and Master is Christ. The one class he 
will cast out; the other class he will draw to himself. 

The Arminian has as much interest in the interpretation of 
these Universalist texts as has the Calvinist, because he is also 
a limitationist as to the actual results of the atonement. In the 
text "I will draw all men," the Arminian interprets "all men" 
as all believers ; in the text, "As in Adam all die," even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive," the Arminian understands the 
word "all" in the first clause to be unlimited, and the "all" who 
are made alive he understands to be believers ; so in his mouth, 
when contending against the Universalist, "all" does not mean 
all absolutely, but it means all relatively. Let him remember 
that and be consistent when he is contending against the Cal- 
vinist and insisting that "all" means absolutely all. Both Cal- 
vinists and Arminians limit the texts quoted by Universalists 
and hold that the universality is only on the surface. They dis- 
agree as to the precise limitation, yet both refuse to concede the 
Universalist his claim that "all" is used in an absolute sense. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Atonement: 
Disproofs of Arminian Universalism 

"Arminianism and Calvinism, the two leading evangelical 
systems, inevitably join issue on the extent of the atonement. 
The former by its principles of moral government, its doctrine 
of sin, and the cardinal facts of its soteriology, is determined 
to a theory of universalism. The latter, by its doctrine of divine 
decrees, its principles of soteriology, and the nature of the atone- 
ment which it maintains, is determined to a theory of limita- 
tion." 

i. The Issue Defined. — Nothing is more important than 
that the issue between these two schools of theology should be 
clearly defined. The formula for the Arminian conception of 
the extent of the atonement is sufficienter pro omnibus; and the 
formula for the Calvinistic view is sufficienter pro omnibus; sed 
efficaciter tantum pro electis. The universalism of Arminianism 
is a universalism of sufficiency only. All that he means to claim 
is that Christ died sufficiently for all men; he agrees with the 
Calvinist in maintaining that all men are not actually saved. 
His universality is in name only; when his scheme is analyzed 
it means that the death of Christ brought merely the possibility 
of salvation to every man's door — it is the universality of possi- 
bility. 

Both the Calvinist and the Arminian hold that the atone- 
ment is unlimited in its sufficiency; do they both mean the same 
thing by sufficiency? If so then the difference between the two 
schemes is only one of degree; the Calvinist would have to be 
thought of as holding all that the Arminian does and so much 
more as is signified by the additional words in his formula, sed 
tantum pro electis. But the difference between the schools over 
the idea of a sufficient atonement is not thus formal, but is deeply 
radical. What is the Arminian definition of sufficiency? 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 203 

"We may distinguish between a mere intrinsic and an actual 
sufficiency. There is reason for the distinction. Satisfactionists 
fully recognize it, especially in application to the redemptive 
work of Christ. An intrinsic sufficiency is what a thing is in 
its own capability. An actual sufficiency is from its appropria- 
tion. A life-boat may have capacity for the rescue of twenty 
shipwrecked mariners, but if appropriated, and limited by the 
appropriation, to the rescue of only ten, the actual and available 
sufficiency is only so much. One man has money enough for the 
liberation of twenty prisoners from debt ; but whether it shall 
be available, and so actually sufficient, depends upon his use or 
appropriation of it. Even if he should appropriate the whole 
sum, but at the same time restrict it to the benefit of a fixed 
number — ten of the twenty — then, while intrinsically sufficient 
for the liberation of all, it would be actually sufficient and avail- 
able for only the designated ten. The atonement of satisfaction 
must yield to such a consequence. The redemptive mediation of 
Christ, in just what he did and suffered, has intrinsic sufficiency 
for the salvation of all men, but there is a limiting divine desti- 
nation. Such are the facts as given by satisfactionists them- 
selves. The sufficiency for all is only potential, not actual from 
a universal destination." 

What then is the Arminian definition of a sufficient atone- 
ment? Let the figures in the quotation be employed to show the 
answer. By the sufficiency of the boat to rescue twenty ship- 
wrecked mariners is not meant its capacity but its availability. 
The sufficiency of the sum of money necessary to redeem twenty 
prisoners means, not the liberating power of the money but the 
availability of the money. If the boat, sent to rescue the twenty 
mariners was not available to ten of them because they were 
dead before its arrival, then we are to say that the boat was 
not sufficient to save but the ten, when as a matter of fact there 
was room enough on her decks for twenty thousand and more. 
If that hypothecated sum of money was set aside to the dis- 
charge of twenty prisoners but was not appropriated by those 
who had the enpending of it to but ten, and so was available to 
but the ten, then we must say that the money was sufficient for 



204 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

but ten. This shows the ridiculousness of the contention that 
sufficiency does not mean capacity but availability. The distinc- 
tion between an "intrinsic" and an "actual" sufficiency is ab- 
surd. The sufficiency of the boat is measured by its capacity; 
the efficiency of the boat is measured by the number it actually 
carried to shore. The sufficiency of the money is measured by 
its redemptive power; the efficiency of the money is measured 
by the number of prisoners it actually redeemed. The sufficiency 
of the atonement is measured by the number of persons it has 
the power of saving, assuming that it was applied to them; the 
efficiency of the atonement is measured by the number of sinners 
it actually saves. The true distinction is between a sufficient and 
an efficient atonement ; and the distinction between an intrinsic 
and an actual sufficiency is a mere play upon words for an ap- 
parent theological advantage. 

The real issue then between Calvinism and Arminianism is 
over the nature of the atonement. Does it save, or render salva- 
ble ; does it expiate sin, or simply make sin expiable ; does it 
really ransom, or only make ransomable ; does it propitiate God, 
or merely render him propitionable ; does it redeem, or merely 
make men redeemable? The atonement is held to be merely 
provisory, providing for salvation, but not saving. It creates a 
universal possibility and makes a universal probation, but it does 
not actually save any one. God, through the atonement, creates 
universal salvability; the sinner converts salvability into actual 
salvation. Watson puts it, "By the death of Christ, the sins of 
every man are rendered remissible, and salvation is consequently 
attainable by every man." Christ died to make sins remissible ; 
then what remits them ? He died to make salvation attainable ; 
then how is it attained? It is attained, according to the system, 
by faith, a mere human act, and it is remitted on the ground of 
faith as a supposititious righteousness. 

Watson, one of the ablest, most evangelical and highly re- 
spected authorities on the Arminian side of this great contro- 
versy, thus states the question : "The question before us, put 
into its simplest form, is, whether our Lord Jesus Christ did so 
die for all men, as to make salvation attainable by all men ; and 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 205 

the affirmative of this question is, we think, the doctrine of the 
Scripture." Did Christ so die as to make salvation "attainable?" 
That, according to the Arminians, was the design, scope, and 
result of the atonement — to make salvation attainable by all 
men. 

2. Arminian Proof -Texts. — While Arminians bring forward 
some principles of God's moral government and some tenets of 
its anthropology and hamartiology in support of its contention 
for the universal possibility of salvation, yet their main reliance 
is upon certain Scripture texts, the interpretation of which is 
the real cause of all that is peculiar in the Arminian conception 
of God, of man and of sin. Their system is essentially soteri- 
ological; whatsoever is peculiar in their theology, whatsoever is 
peculiar in their anthropology, whatsoever is peculiar in their 
hamartiology, is due to whatsoever is peculiar in their soteriology. 
The theory of salvation was first determined and then the other 
departments of theology were squared with it. This is par- 
ticularly true of Wesleyan Arminianism. It planted itself, first 
of all, by the side of the proof-texts of universalism and from 
that center it radiated, determined that everything should be ruled 
by these passages, which seemed so plain. 

Arminian writers group these texts under the following 
heads : 

(1) Those texts which declare that Christ died for "all" 
and for "every" man. "The man Christ Jesus ; who gave him- 
self a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim. 2:5, 6). 
"We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, 
specially of those that believe" (1 Tim. 4:10). "But we see 
Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suf- 
fering of death, crowned with glory and honor ; that he by the 
grace of God should taste death for every man" (Heb. 2:9). 

(2) Those texts which represent Christ as dying for the 
"world." "The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world" (Jno. 1 129). "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not 
for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world" (1 Jno. 2:2). 
"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 



206 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

whosoever believeth should not perish, but have everlasting life ; 
for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, 
but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16, 17). 

(3) A third group of texts are assembled under the cap- 
tion that the effects of the death of Christ are co-extensive with 
the effects of the fall of Adam. "As by the offence of one judg- 
ment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the 
righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justi- 
fication of life" (Rom. 5:18). "If one died for all, then were 
all dead" (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). 

(4) A fourth group of texts are those which represent 
Christ as dying for those who finally perish. "And through thy 
knowledge shall thy weak brother perish, for whom Christ died ?" 
(1 Cor. 8:11). "Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ 
died" (Rom. 14:15). "False teachers, who privily shall bring 
in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, 
and bring upon them swift destruction" (2 Pet. 2:1). "Of 
how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought 
worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted 
the blood of the covenant, wherewith he is sanctified, an unholy 
thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" (Heb. 
10:29). 

(5) A fifth grouping of texts is made in order to show that 
it is the duty of the Church and the ministry to offer salvation 
to all men indiscriminately. "Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned" 
(Mark 16:15, 16). 

(6) A sixth assemblage of texts is made so as to show that 
it is the duty of all men to believe the gospel that is to be 
universally offered and that the rejection of the gospel offer is 
the greatest possible enhancement of condemnation and guilt. 
"He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath 
of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). "But these are written, 
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; 
and that believing ye might have life through his name" (John 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 207 

30:31). "The Lord shall be revealed from heaven with his 
mighty angels, in naming fire, taking vengeance on them that 
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ" (2 Thess. 1:7, 8). "This is the condemnation, that 
light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than 
light" (John 3:19). 

This is a stiff array of Scripture; and if these texts were 
taken as the starting-point for a system of, soteriology, and if 
it were decided that these texts should bear their face mean- 
ing, it is undeniable that they would lead the theologian into 
some form of universalism and he would have the task of har- 
monizing the general statements of Scripture with the specific 
instead of squaring the general by the specific. 

3. Explanation of Arminian Proof-Texts. — But would it be 
Arminian universalism, the universalism of mere opportunity? 
The supremest difficulty is to show that all these texts do not 
teach true and proper universalism, a conclusion as abhorrent 
to the Arminian as to the Calvinist. "The Saviour of the world" 
— looks very much as if it meant precisely what it says. But 
both Calvinists and Arminians deny its face meaning, but in 
different ways. The Calvinist puts his limitations upon 
the "world" while the Arminian puts his restrictions upon 
the notion of salvation. Both the Arminian and the Cal- 
vinist are limitationists in spite of the popular pose of the Ar- 
minian as a species of universalist. The Arminian maintains his 
conclusion that the atonement is only sufficient by limiting the 
active verbs, while Calvinists maintain their position that the 
atonement is efficient for only some by limiting the objects of the 
verb. Take, for illustration, that text which defines the pur- 
pose of our Lord's coming into the world — "Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners." As it stands, isolated from all 
the remainder of Scripture, these words mean the salvation of 
all men, because sinners is unlimited and to save means to save. 
But the Calvinist contracts it to fit the facts of an actual limited 
salvation by interpreting it, Christ Jesus came into the world to 
save elect sinners ; and Arminians contract the meaning by alter- 
ing "to save" into to make salvation possible. In interpreting 



208 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

these universal passages Arminians change the nature of the 
atonement in order to get a limited redemption, while Calvinists 
limit the objects of atonement. 

But let us take up these texts, group by group, and examine 
them with the patience their importance demands. 

(i) The first class are those which use the universal terms 
"all" and "every." 

"Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." The Uni- 
versalist true and proper has no sort of amendment to make to 
the text ; Christ is a true and proper ransom who delivers abso- 
lutely all men. The Arminian has his difficulty with the idea of 
a "ransom" and imports a meaning into it which enables him to 
see how the ransom does not avail for all men ; so he interprets 
the death of Christ as that which makes all men ransomable. 
The Calvinist, finding that absolutely all men are not ransomed 
by the death of Christ, concludes that the "all" in the text is 
taken in some relative sense ; a ransom for all classes and con- 
ditions of men. Now let us set the whole context of the pas- 
sage before us, for it is one of the most difficult for limitationists 
in all the Scriptures. 

"I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, 
intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for 
kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a 
quiet and peacable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is 
good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will 
have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of 
the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God 
and men, the man Christ Jesus ; who gave himself a ransom for 
all, to be testified in due time" (i Tim. 2:1-6). 

This passage looks like it teaches the universal salvation of 
all men and that that is the fact which will be evidenced in due 
time. But we are barred from accepting this as its true meaning 
because it would throw this utterance of Paul out of line of the 
declarations of our Lord already referred to. 

The Arminian interpretation of the passage cannot be ac- 
cepted because the word here is antilutron, the very strong- 
est possible word for vicarious ransom, lutron properly de- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 209 

notes a ransom paid in order to deliver any one from death, or 
prison, or captivity; and anti conveys the idea that the 
ransom is vicarious, that the payment is made instead of the 
victim by somebody else. Money deposited as a ransom actually 
releases and does not merely provide for release; if accepted, 
the prisoner or captive must be discharged from custody. Now 
this ransom which Christ made of himself was not given to the 
sinner, but was given to God, and is, consequently, for his ac- 
ceptance or rejection. 

But the Calvinistic interpretation is acceptable because it 
keeps the passage in harmony with the wider context of the whole 
Scripture and stoutly maintains the true meaning of "ransom." 
Then the passage is an instruction to Timothy, a young minister, 
about the conduct of public worship. Paul charges him to make 
prayer and supplication for kings and all in authority, that is, 
for all classes and conditions of men, that we may lead peacable 
lives. If the command is to pray for all men indiscriminately, 
then the passage is brought into conflict with that Scripture 
which forbids praying for the man who has committed "the un- 
pardonable sin." So the opening of the passage puts the key 
to its universalism into the hands of the Calvinist. 

"The Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe." — 
This text cannot teach an absolute universalism, not only be- 
cause it would then be out of line with the limitationism of our 
Lord, but because it emphasizes the salvation of believers. Upon 
universalist principles the text means that Christ is the Saviour 
of all men, of those who do not believe as well as of those who 
do believe, but in some emphatic and especial sense he is the 
Saviour of those that believe. Wherein is the salvation of a 
believer different from and superior to the salvation of an un- 
believer? The text teaches that Christ is a Saviour of believers 
in a sense or to a degree in which he is not a Saviour of un- 
believers ; what is this sense ? Universalists cannot answer. 

What answer can the Arminian give but this, He saves be- 
lievers but he only renders the unbelievers salvable. Then, un- 
der such an interpretation, Christ would not be the Saviour of 
all men, but only the Saviour of so many men as believed; but 



210 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the text teaches that he is the Saviour of all men, especially 
of them that believe. 

Calvinistic interpreters make the second clause limit and 
define the first ; the first is general and the second is specific. All 
hail Christ as the Saviour of sinners, as the Salvator Hominum, 
but they do not mean thereby to proclaim that every individual 
man is saved. Christ is the Saviour of all men, that, is of all 
men who believe. Believing defines the portion of the race which 
is actually saved. 

"That he (Christ) by the grace of God should taste death 
for every man" (Heb. 2:9). To "taste death" is but a figure 
of speech for dying; and to taste death for every man is to die 
for every man. Did Christ die in the room and stead of every 
man? That would be universalism pure and absolute. Or did 
he die in behalf of every man? That would be to make the sal- 
vation of all provisory only. Did he die for every man who 
was represented in him, and for whose salvation he came into 
the world? Such is the Calvinistic interpretation of the text. 

All this group of texts which represent Christ as dying for 
"all" and for "every" man must be squared with those which 
represent him as dying for the "sheep," for "his people," for 
"them that believe.' The Arminian contention is that he died 
for all men equally and alike;* the Calvinist contends that he 
died for his people in a sense in which he did not die for those 
who were not his people. And what is this distinction? The 
answer is that he died sufficiently for all men and efficaciously 
for elect and believing men. With this formula he is able to in- 
terpret all these texts which say Christ died for "all" and "every" 
man and harmonize them with all those sharp and definite state- 
ments which represent Christ as having an interest in his own 
people and dying for them in a sense which he does not feel and 
which he did not do for the race in general. 

"Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all." — Our 
formula resolves this in this way, A ransom sufficient for all' and 
efficient for some. The Arminian renders it, A ransom sufficient 



*Watson's Institutes, Vol. II, p. 286. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 211 

for all. The Universalist construes it, A ransom efficient for all. 
Each of the parties has had to put in a definite word. 

"The Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe." — 
Our formula interprets it thus, A sufficient Saviour of all men, 
and an efficient Saviour of those that believe. The Arminian 
construes it, A sufficient Saviour of all men and a sufficient 
Saviour of believers. The Universalist expounds it, An efficient 
Saviour of all men and especially efficient for those that believe. 

"He by the grace of God tasted death for every man": this 
means in the mouth of the Calvinist that he tasted death suf- 
ficiently for every man while he tasted it efficiently for some men ; 
in the mouth of an Arminian it means that Christ tasted death 
sufficiently for every man and in the mouth of the Universalist it 
means that Christ tasted death efficiently for every man. The 
formula of the Calvinist allows him to interpret both the general 
and specific passages, while the formulas of Universalists and 
Arminians enable them to expound only one class, namely, the 
general and universal class of texts. If Christ is the "Saviour 
of all men," equally, as is the contention of both Universalists 
and Arminians, how is he a Saviour "especially for those that 
believe?" They cannot answer; we can. He is the sufficient 
saviour of all men and he is the efficient Saviour of them that 
believe. Believing defines the actual beneficiaries of the atone- 
ment ; and the believers in time were the "elect" in eternity, as 
they will be the "saints in glory." For them Christ died in some 
"especial" sense; Arminians and Universalists cannot show the 
meaning of "especial" ; Calvinists can. 

If Christ died equally and just as much for one man as he 
did for another, (and this is the contention of both Arminians 
and Universalists), then what has he done for believers which he 
has not done for unbelievers ? The atonement stands for the entire 
work of Christ, stands for all that he did as a Saviour; if his 
atonement was equal for all men, then he did as much for unbe- 
lievers as he did for believers ; his whole work was as much for 
the one class as for the other. Then we would have to think 
of Christ as the Saviour of the lost just as much as he is the 
Saviour of the saved. The Calvinist draws a distinction, and 



212 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

holds that he is the sufficient Saviour of the lost while he is the 
efficient Saviour of the saved. 

(2) The second class of Arminian proof-texts describe the 
beneficiary of Christ's atonement as the "world." Here the ques- 
tion is, What is the meaning of the word "world"? If it were 
employed always in one single sense the interpretation would not 
be difficult; but as a matter of fact the word "world" is used in 
the Scriptures in three senses, (a). Sometimes it stands for that 
which is redeemed ; (b) sometimes for that which is not re- 
deemed; (c), sometimes for a part of the world as distinguished 
from another part of the world. 

As an example of the first sense, take the following: "The 
bread of God is he which giveth life to the world" : the "world" 
here is that to which God feeds the bread of life. — Abraham is the 
"heir of the world" : the "world" here is that thing which Abra- 
ham as the father of all believers heired, and he certainly did not 
heir all mankind. "If the fall of them be the riches of the world" : 
here the "world" is that which is enriched by the fall of the Jews. 
— "If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world" ; 
here the "world" is that which is reconciled to God. — "The Son of 
man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through 
him might be saved" : here the "world" is that which is not con- 
demned, but that which is saved. These passages are sufficient 
to show that the word "world" frequently stands for the thing 
which Christ saves. He is called "the Saviour of the world." 

Another class of texts shows that the word "world" some- 
times stands for the thing which is not saved by Christ. For ex- 
ample : "The world knew him not" : here the word world stands 
for that which did not know Christ as its Saviour. — "The world 
cannot hate you, but me it hateth" : here it stands for that which 
hates Christ. — "The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot re- 
ceive" : here the "world" is that which cannot be taught of the 
Spirit. — "Thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the 
world" : here it stands for that thing to which Christ refuses to 
manifest himself. — "Not as the world giveth, give I unto you" : 
here is a sharp contrast between Christ and the "world." — "If the 
world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 213 

ye were of the world, the world would love its own ; but because 
ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, 
therefore the world hateth you" : here the word "world" stands 
for that out of which Christ has chosen his disciples. — "In the 
world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer ; I have 
overcome the world" : here the "world" stands for that which is 
hostile to the people of God, and which will be overthrown by our 
Lord. — "I pray not for the world" : here it is that wicked thing 
which Christ will not even pray for. — "Now is the judgment of 
this world ; now is the prince of this world judged" : here it stands 
for that world which is condemned, whose prince is cast out. 

Here then are two distinct "worlds" in the Scripture — a 
world that is saved and a world that is lost. Which "world" is it 
whose sins are "taken away" by the Lamb of God, and which 
"world" is it whose sins are not "taken away" by that Lamb? 
Which "world" is it that "God so loved as to give his only begotten 
Son to die for it"? Which "world" is it whose sins Christ 
"propitiated" ? This is a matter which must be determined before 
Universalists and Arminians can dogmatize about a universal 
atonement from those texts that represent Christ as dying for the 
"world." 

If the "world" for which he died is the same "world" which 
will be lost, then he died in vain. If the world for which he died 
is the "world" which will be saved, then the atonement is for one 
"world" and not for two ; that is, it is limited and not universal. 

Is not there a unity in the meaning ; Are not the two "worlds" 
of John, for it is this Apostle who uses this idea, really the same 
world, viewed from two different points of observations ? 

The word translated "world" is kosmos. In the beginning 
the "world" was a physical chaos ; but the Spirit of God brooded 
upon the face of this chaotic mass and it became a Cosmos, a 
physical world of order and beauty. When man sinned, the 
Cosmos became a moral Chaos, a world of moral disorder and 
anarchy. Sin is a disturbing, disuniting, disorganizing force in 
God's moral universe. Now this moral world, a spiritual Chaos, 
needs to be converted into a spiritual Cosmos, or God must wipe 
it out of existence. When we look forward to the end of reve- 



214 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

lation, to see the finale of all this scheme of divine operation in 
this chaotic world, we see a "new heavens and a new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness" ; we see the Paradise that was 
lost regained ; we see that a spiritual Cosmos has arisen out of 
the moral Chaos. Standing by the tree on the banks of the river 
of life, and looking at the new world which surrounds us, the 
Cosmos which has superseded the spiritual Chaos of sin, we will 
be able to say of this new world, literally and truly, the Lamb of 
God has taken away every sin and every sinnner ; this is the 
world which God so loved as to give his Son to die for its recla- 
mation; this is the "world" whose sins have all been propitiated 
by the death of Christ; this is the world which has been the ob- 
ject of his love, the theatre of his redemption; the world for 
which he was incarnated, the world for which he died ; and on 
the topmost hill of the New Jerusalem shall all the ransomed 
people of God crown him the Saviour of the World. 

The mission and work of Christ in the earth is not to be 
thought of as limited and narrowed to the salvation of a few men 
on the earth, but is to be widened until the idea of restoring this 
whole rebellious province to the glory of God is included within 
the scope of the Advent and Atonement of our Lord. In the fall 
of man the earth itself was cursed, and the men who live on the 
earth were cursed, and the relations between men and nature were 
disordered, so that physical nature became the foe of the man 
who was made to dress and care for 1 the garden. Christ's re- 
demption aims at a complete restoration of order, harmony, and 
happiness. This whole world order is the world which is to be 
redeemed. To save the "world" is to restore the throne and 
dominion and glory of God on the earth. This Christ will ac- 
complish, for after the judgment we see the new heavens and the 
new earth raised out of the ashes of the final fire which consumed 
the old heavens and the old earth, and on this New World are all 
the ransomed people of God. 

That dominion which is to be overthrown is the dominion 
of the "Prince of this World," and that world which is to be 
destroyed is the world which he! rules, which he has traduced 
from the service and worship of God ; and those men who perish 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 215 

are the men who finally and perversely cleave to the old order of 
things and refuse to come out and be separate from the doomed 
world. In the fullness of time a lance of flame will be fastened 
into the heart of this sinful world and a shaft of fire will also be 
fixed in the heart of each tenant on this globe who makes common 
cause with this world and its prince. This is the "world" which 
will be destroyed, out of which he has chosen some and away from 
which he has warned all men. 

The Old World and the New World — the one is the object 
of God's wrath and the other is the object of his love and redemp- 
tion. The Old World now is ; the New World is the one which 
comes after the renovation of all things. The inhabitants of the 
Old World are saints and sinners ; the inhabitants of the New 
World are glorified saints. Those who perish are the citizens of 
the Old World; those who live are those whose citizenship is in 
heaven. The New World will be made out of the same materials 
that are in the Old World, but they will be reconstructed. The 
new world will whirl in the same orbit which was occupied by the 
Old World, but it will fill all its sphere with the praise of God 
while the Old World filled all its sphere with enmity and maledic- 
tion of its Creator. 

I take, it, then, that Christ is "the Saviour of the world" in 
John's gospel in the same sense in which Paul conceives of him 
as the Saviour of "the all things in heaven and in earth." So 
shall it come to pass that "the meek shall inherit the earth," but in 
the day of their inheritance it will be the New Earth, one really 
worth having, for this present earth entails upon its inhabitants 
more of misery than of happiness, and, except as a theatre of 
redemption and a school of sanctification, is really not worth 
owning, is a burden rather than a blessing. As it stands it is a 
piece of property not worth owning. 

(3) The third group of texts quoted by Arminians are 
those which represent sin and the atonement as co-extensive. The 
strongest of this class is the text which runs, "As by the offence 
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by 
the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto 
justification of life" (Rom. 5:18). But this text ought not 



216 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

to be quoted by any Arminian, because he does not hold that the 
justification through Christ is actually as wide as the condemna- 
tion through Adam. He is interested, with the Calvinist, in find- 
ing some true way to limit this text so that it shall not be made to 
teach universalism. The Arminian doctrine is that all men are 
made salvable through Christ; and if this parallelism is to hold, 
then all men are only made condemnable through Adam. The 
Wesleyan Arminian holds that the guilt of original sin was carried 
away by Christ, so that the Atonement was efficacious in removing 
original guilt, by which all men are simply made salvable. Then 
the status of the entire race today is, All are condemnable and all 
are salvable. This is thoroughly in contradiction of that Scrip- 
ture which represents men as "condemned" already. The Scrip- 
tures know nothing of condemnability and nothing of salvability. 
The very language is a foreign dialect. This entire group of 
texts destroy all forms of Arminianism as well as Calvinism, if 
taken literally. They are proof-texts for Universalism; and are 
proof -texts for neither Arminians nor Calvinists. This group, 
then, is to be thrown out as worth nothing to the cause of Armin- 
ianism. 

(4) The fourth group of Arminian Proof-texts are those 
which represent Christ as dying for those who actually perish. 
But these quotations are not conclusive against Limitationists, 
because, (a), Christ did die sufficienter for those who perish; 
(b) the cases are all hypothetical; (c) all the texts contain but an 
argumentum ad hominem, designed to show the strong Christian 
how wicked it would be for him to disregard his weak brother, 
who, if he really be a brother as is professed, he is a man for 
whom Christ died. This explains these texts. 

But there is an argument against any other interpretation. 
If Christ was incarnated, lived, suffered, wrought, and died and 
rose again and ascended to heaven for a man who was finally lost, 
then how was that other man saved who was saved ? It could not 
have been by Christ, for he did all he could for the man who was 
lost and, as his work respects all alike, he did not and could not 
do any more for the man who was saved. Christ did all he could 
for the man that was lost, and he did all he could for the man who 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 217 

was saved ; then who saved the one and who destroyed the other ? 
If Christ had been the saving power, then, inasmuch as his power, 
according to the contention is equally applied, it ought to have 
saved one just as well as the other. So the man who is saved 
has somebody else to thank for it besides Christ. 

The Calvinist can explain so as to give all the glory to God. 
Christ died sufficiently for the man who perished but he died 
efficaciously for the man who is saved. That is the same thing 
as saying' that Christ gives his Holy Spirit to all those for whom 
he died, so that in due time, and by due process of grace, they are 
regenerated, sanctified and finally glorified. 

(5) The fifth group of Arminian texts are those which 
require that the gospel be universally preached. Emphasis is laid 
upon the "great commission" and upon the liberal concession of 
limitationists that the gospel ought to be preached every where. 

If the Atonement, he argues, is not destined by its Maker 
for all men, why does he, through his ministers, offer it to all 
men? A universal offer implies a universal Atonement, else God 
makes a knave out of himself and a fool out of his preacher. 
Preach it to every creature ; make it free like the air, make it 
wide like the sea ; urge it with every argument of reason, with 
every figure of rhetoric, with all the pathos of passion ; organize 
a Church on the amplest policy, put the doctrine of missions 
into its heart and send its ministry everywhere, over every diffi- 
culty ; offer salvation through Christ to all the race of sinners. 
If that does not mean, argues the Universalist, unlimited Atone- 
ment, God is insincere, and his preacher is a laughing-stock. 

Now let us carefully examine this charter which creates 
the duty and prerogative of preaching with a view, first of 
finding out what we are to preach, and second, why we are to 
preach. 

What then is to be the substance of true evangelical preach- 
ing ? The preacher is an official spokesman for God ; what is 
he authorized to say to the world? He is a herald sent from 
God to the nations of the earth; what precisely and definitely 
is he to proclaim? Matthew treats him as a teacher and says 
he is sent forth to teach all nations "to observe all things what- 



218 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

soever I (Christ) have commanded you/' Mark specifies the 
substance of the preaching as "the gospel," and, Luke tells us 
that the Apostles were commissioned to preach "that repent- 
ance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among 
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." These Apostles were in- 
structed to tarry at Jerusalem before taking up their duties 
under this commission until they should be indued with power 
from on high. On the day of Pentecost in the city of Jerusalem 
that promise was fulfilled and the Holy Spirit came down upon 
them with supernatural power, and now what did these inspired 
Apostles preach? for we may infer that they did not miscon- 
strue their commission, or go beyond its terms. On that day 
Peter preached what may be called the Inaugural Discourse of 
the New Testament and struck the key-note of all preaching. 
He simply told the story of Christ, reciting the salient facts in 
his career without defining the extent of his atoning work, either 
as limited or as universal. In this connection he and other New 
Testament writers describe all preachers as witnesses, and the 
duty of a witness is to recite facts, and recite them in the plain- 
est and most effective manner. In this recital of facts he finds 
that Christ died to propitiate God, to expiate sin, to satisfy divine 
justice; he finds that the benefits which flow from the work of 
Christ to men are the objective blessings of justification and 
adoption and the subjective blessings of regeneration and sancti- 
fication ; he finds that the beneficiaries of this Atonement, the 
heirs of these saving blessings, are never described as all man- 
kind universally and indiscriminately, but that these human bene- 
ficiaries are always and invariably designated as that portion of 
the race which repents and believes. If he is a true witness he 
must tell the facts as they are ; he has gone beyond his com- 
mission when he undertakes to say that the beneficiaries of the 
atonement are all men; all that he can truthfully say is that the 
atonement is for all who believe; he must be a limitationist.. He 
is therefore not commissioned to go among all the nations to 
declare that Christ died for all individuals ; he is not told to tell 
it that way; he is directed to go everywhere and say, that who- 
soever believes shall be saved, and he that believes not shall be 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 219 

damned ; he is instructed to qualify the beneficiaries of the atone- 
ment so as to represent not all men but certain men, namely, be- 
lievers, as the beneficiaries of the Atonement. If he so preaches, 
he is a limitationist and not a universalist. 

The preacher who proclaims that Christ has placated God 
for every individual man proclaims that God is well-pleased with 
everybody and if he preaches that Christ has expiated the guilt 
of every sinner, then he declares that there is today no guilty 
sinner on the earth ; and if he announces that the law and justice 
have been satisfied with respect to every person, then he heralds 
that there is no just claim against any. If Christ made an atone- 
ment for Judas, he placated God towards him, expiated the guilt 
of Judas and satisfied justice in his behalf. If Christ died for 
Esau, then he made God to be pleased with Esau, wiped out the 
guilt of Esau and satisfied every legal demand which the gov- 
ernment of heaven had against him. If there was an atone- 
ment which did less than this it was no atonement at all. Atone- 
ment is made to the offended party; atonement is made to God. 
Was it acceptable by him or not? If he accepted it, he is estopped 
from finding further fault ; if he did not accept it, it was not in 
his judgment an atonement. If Christ atoned for all the sins 
of all men, why doth he yet find fault? Is he like one of us 
who today declares himself satisfied and tomorrow renews the 
quarrel? What does atonement mean? It means satisfaction, 
or nothing. 

The gospel preacher who sets out to preach universal sal- 
vability has read into his commission in order to lower it; he is 
not sent forth to herald salvability but salvation. Then he ought 
to remember that he may be speaking to one who has committed 
"the unpardonable sin," or to one who, has "sinned away" his 
day of grace, or to "some foolish virgin" who has let her lamp 
go out, or to some man who has trodden under foot the blood 
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, or to some man 
who has tasted the good word of life and then fallen away, 
whom it is impossible to renew again. If these cases do not 
deter him from preaching a universal salvability, he ought to 
remember that he is not made a judge of men by his commis- 



220 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

sion to preach, and so decline to assume any more responsibility 
than is truly laid upon him. The burden of his preaching ought 
to be, Whosoever believes shall be saved, and whosoever does 
not believe shall be damned. But when any individual asks, 
"Did Jesus die for me?" or "Am I salvable?" Let him remem- 
ber that his functions are ministerial and not judicial; and so 
make the sober safe reply, "If you believe, then Christ truly 
died for you, and if you believe, then you are not salvable, but 
you are saved." 

Conceding that the substance of true preaching consists in 
the proclamation of the facts of the gospel in the clearest and 
most effective manner possible, the next question is, Why, if 
the gospel is not to be universally applied, it is to be preached 
universally ? 

(a) The gospel should be offered universally, because there 
is no other sort of preaching possible. If the minister were an 
inspired prophet, with the power to discern between the elect 
and the non-elect, he would have to be clothed with judicial 
functions also, for, under the circumstances, the offer of the 
gospel to one man and its withholdment from another would be 
the pronouncement of judgment upon them. In this state of 
things there is no alternative but to preach the Gospel to every- 
body, or to nobody. 

(b) The gospel ought to be preached to everybody because 
the atonement is really and truly sufficient for everybody. This 
fact ought to be proclaimed because it is fact, most honoring 
God. The provisions of salvation are superabundant, enough for 
all, and there is no danger that the infinite supplies of grace will 
give out. Clearly it is the intrinsic sufficiency of the atonement 
that ought to regulate its offer and not any foreseen difficulties 
in the way. God has an inexhaustible supply of what he offers 
in the gospel. 

(c) The gospel ought to be universally offered because God 
interposes no difficulty between the sinner and the offered" salva- 
tion. He exerts no direct efficiency upon the will of the non- 
elect: the decree of preterition is permissive. It is not God's 
hand that holds back any man. It is not external circumstances 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 221 

which compel the rejection of the offer. It is not the indirect 
influence of any special grace which he gives to believers which 
restrains unbelievers from accepting the offered salvation. God 
exerts himself neither directly nor indirectly against any sinner. 
On the contrary the entire cause, the whole reason, why any 
sinner is not saved is the refusal of his own free and uncon- 
strained will to accept what is offered to him without money and 
without price. He ought to be told this ; the gospel ought to be 
preached universally that every sinner might know that the causes 
of his damnation are in his own will while the causes of his 
salvation are in the will of God. 

(d) The gospel ought to be preached universally because 
God really and truly desires that every sinner should accept 
what is offered to him. He is sincere who has what he offers, 
and who offers what he has with the honest desire that it be 
accepted. God asseverates upon his oath that he has no pleasure 
in the death of the wicked. I am not insincere in extending a 
helping hand to any enemy who I know will decline it out of 
pure hostility to me. 

(e) The gospel ought to be preached universally because it 
is the sinner, not God, who prevents a sufficient atonement from 
becoming an efficient atonement. But for God's action, the atone- 
ment which is infinitely sufficient would be efficient for no man. 
It would fail through the perversity of the universal fallen will. 
God only makes a sufficient atonement an efficient one. The 
water in the river of life is superabundant; there is no barrier 
between man and that river ; the way is open and unobstructed ; 
he does not drink because he does not want to. 

The parable of "the Great Supper" illustrates all these points. 
The provision which had been made for the guest with such 
royal ampleness represents the sufficiency of the atonement; the 
messengers sent out to invite the guests to the feast represent the 
ministers of God's word, and the parable shows that their chief 
function is to be invitation bearers ; the refusal of those who 
were first invited shows how nothing but the sinner's own heart 
stands between him and the heavy-laden table of grace, and the 
compulsion of those who did finally come shows how a sufficient 



222 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

feast becomes an efficient meal. If the divine host compelled 
some to the supper, he did not prevent anyone, but on the con- 
trary invited all. Those who did not come, what reason can 
they give for not accepting the invitation? Can they plead 
that there was not enough for them, that the atonement was in- 
sufficient? Can they plead that they were not wanted, when an 
express messenger, the minister of the gospel, is sent to urge 
their attendance? Can they plead that they had no warrant to 
come, when the very object of sending an invitation was to put 
the right to come into their hands? Can they plead that they 
did not have the power to come, when all their inability was a 
disinclination of heart? It all resolves itself into this that those 
who did not come did not come for the sole reason that they did 
not want to come, and that those who did come came because they 
were compelled to come. And why did he not compel them all? 
We do not know : the question cannot be answered. 

Here then is final reason for the universal proclamation of 
the atonement. To put into every sinner's hand the warrant, the 
right, the prerogative to believe. 

(6) The sixth group of texts quoted by Arminians in sup- 
port of a universal salvability are those which represent the re- 
jection of the gospel as an enhancement of guilt. How can any 
man be held accountable for declining an atonement which was 
not made for him? Yet the Scriptures teach that this is "the 
condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved 
darkness rather than light." In reply to this difficulty these things 
may be said. 

(a) The atonement is genuinely sufficient for all men. The 
quantity of water in the river of life is sufficient for the entire 
race, that all may have all he can possibly drink; the life-boat 
has capacity in her cabin and power in her engines sufficient to 
carry all the men on the earth as her passengers. 

(b) The offer of this atonement to all men is genuine and 
sincere. God interposes no obstacle between any man and the 
water of life; he genuinely urges all to come aboard the life- 
boat which is tied up by the side of this sinking world. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 223 

(c) There is absolutely nothing that prevents the salvation 
of any man but his own will. It is not the decree of reproba- 
tion that prevents him ; it is not the efficacious application of the 
atonement to some that prevents others from believing; the only 
and the entire efficient cause of the loss of any man is his own 
will. 

When we analyze this disinclination of will, we find it very 
deep-seated; we do not find it to be a slight opposition, easily 
overcome by remonstrance and the entreaty and the scolding of 
friends and preachers ; we find it to be an intense hatred of 
heart; so intense that the sinner cries out that he will perish of 
thirst before he will drink of that water ; that he will go down 
with the world before he will go aboard that rescuing vessel. 
Such is the language of the apostate heart: I had rather die 
in hell than accept the atonement of Christ. 

Those who were absent from the Great Supper were absent 
not because the quantity of provision was inadequate, not be- 
cause they were not invited, not through any indirect action of 
the host, but they stayed away for the single and sole reason that 
they did not want to go to that Supper. 

But it was the duty as well as the privilege of those men 
to go to the feast; they stayed away only because they had no 
heart for it, only because they did not want to go ; hence their 
increased culpability. They could have gone to the feast so 
far as anything outside of themselves hindered; God did not 
hinder ; man did not hinder ; circumstances did not hinder ; the 
compulsion of some did not hinder ; their own hearts hindered ; 
they hated the host; therefore they would not go to his feast. 

Under these circumstances, a man is culpable for rejecting 
a sufficient atonement. When he says it was not efficient for 
him, the answer is that it was sufficient for him; and when he 
says it was not intended for him, the answer is that it was offered 
to him by one who had the right to offer it, and he declined it 
singly and solely because he did not want it. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Intercession of Christ 

The second part of Christ's priestly work is his Intercession. 

In it he performs the office of an advocate and pleads the 
merits of his atonement as the ground for the discharge and 
blessing of those offenders whom he represented at the altar. 
The ancient high priest of Israel, having offered the victim upon 
the altar according to the sacerdotal formula, bore the atoning 
blood into the most holy place of Jehovah's worship and, sprink- 
ling it upon the mercy-seat, the ark of the covenant and the floor 
round about, there, upon the grounds of the shed blood of the 
sacrifice, sued for the absolution of the offender and for the 
blessing of God. So Christ, having made a sacrifice of him- 
self, enters behind the veil, with his blood in the basin as the 
evidence of his fulfilment of the mediatorial engagement and dis- 
charge of the redemptional contract, and, upon the ground of 
the merits of his shed blood, entreats his Father for the appli- 
cation of the benefits of his atonement to those for whom it was 
made — pleads for the remission of their guilt, for the bestow- 
ment upon them of the blessing of his forgiveness and sues for 
the gift of the Holy Spirit for their entire subjective purgation 
from all the defilement and power of sin. Making the atone- 
ment, he becomes a priestly attorney in the presence of God to 
impetrate all the benefits of redemption for his people. 

I. Terminology. — This intercessory function of the priest- 
ly office of Christ is expressed in Scripture by three terms. 

(i) He "appears" before God in behalf of his people, in a 
manner analogous to that in which, as we say, a particular at- 
torney appears in court in the interest of his client. "For Christ 
is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are 
the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in 
the presence of God for us . but now once in the end 

of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 225 

of himself" (Heb. 9:24-26). "Neither by the blood of goats 
and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the 
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Heb. 
9:12). "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and 
of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb 
as it had been slain" (Rev. 5:6). 

(2) Christ "entreats" with God for his people, after the 
manner in which one person makes representations in behalf 
of another person. He is distinctively called an "intercessor." 
"It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is 
even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession 
for us" (Rom. 8:34). "Wherefore he is able also to save them 
to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever 
liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25). 

(3) Then he is represented as "an advocate," one who is 
called by the side of another to represent his cause, and counsel 
concerning his interests. He is thus exhibited as the saints' 
attorney at the bar of God. "And if any man sin, we have an 
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous ; and he is 
the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but for the 
sins of the whole world" (1 John 11 :i, 2). 

II. Characteristics. — (1) Christ prays, not as a suppliant, 
but as a royal demandant. "Father, I will that they also, whom 
thou hast given me, be with me where I am ; that they may be- 
hold my glory, which thou hast given me ; for thou lovedest me 
before the foundation of the world" (Jno. 17:24). 

(2) He bases his prayer upon the "blood" which he shed 
in making the atonement. "Neither by the blood of goats and 
calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy 
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Heb. 9:12). 
This is the argument which he makes in urging his cause, the 
reason which he assigns in making his plea, the ground upon 
which he makes his priestly demands upon his Father. 

(3) He restricts his pleading to those whom he represented 
in his atoning death, to those whom the Father had given him. 
"I pray for them ; I pray not for the world, but for them which 



226 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, 
and thine are mine ; and I am glorified in them. . . . Neither 
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe 
on me through their word ; that they all may be one ; as thou, 
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in 
us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (Jno. 
17:9-21). The reprobate world has no part nor lot in the prayers 
of the Redeemer. 

(4) For those who were given to him, he prays that they 
may be kept from the evil that is in the world ; that they may be 
sanctified; that they may all be spiritually unified in him as he 
and his Father are one ; that they may all be made full sharers 
and copartners with him in his glory ; that they may all have the 
fullest and most exuberant manifestation of his love and good 
will (Jno. 17). 

(5) He is a sympathetic attorney. "Wherefore in all things 
it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he 
might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining 
to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For 
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to 
succour them that are tempted" (Heb. 2:17, 18). Sympathy is 
grounded in (a) community of nature and (b) community of 
experience. Because he was genuinely human and because he 
had a genuine human experience he was able to sympathize with 
his people, enter into all their varying experiences, and adapt his 
intercessions to the entire current of their shifting experiences. 
He does not plead in any mere pro forma manner, but heartily, 
as one who is a copartner with his client and himself personally 
interested in the suit which he conducts. 

(6) The prayers of Christ are always prevalent; he never 
does, nor can, pray an unanswered prayer. "And Jesus lifted 
his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 
And I know that thou hearest me always" (Jno. 11 41, 42). His 
prayers must be all-prevalent, because he can never, through 
ignorance or badheartedness, ever ask amiss. He and his Father 
are one; they always see from the same point of view and have 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 227 

a community of feeling about every matter ; and consequently 
the Redeemer always reflects the Father's mind and can ask 
nothing which is not in accordance with the Father's will. He 
prayed for his murderers at the cross ; and who can say that 
these very persons will not appear at last in heavenly glory 
saved by the very grace which saves any other sinner, them- 
selves the beneficiaries of their own act and splendid trophies 
of divine grace and mercy? There is no presentation in Scrip- 
ture of any unanswered prayer offered by the Redeemer. 

III. Two Intercessors. — The sinner enjoys the royal 
honor and the lofty privilege and the distinguishing blessing of 
having two attorneys to plead his cause, both members of the 
adorable Godhead and each serving him without money and 
without price. One intercessor is the triumphant Redeemer and 
the other is the Holy Spirit. "The Spirit itself maketh inter- 
cession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered" (Rom. 
8:26). Both the Second and the Third Persons of the Trinity 
are thus said to be the advocates of the sinner. 

(1) These two intercessions differ as to place. The Son 
pleads in foro dei, in the court-room of God ; the Spirit pleads 
in foro conscientiae, in the court-room of the conscience. The 
one attends to the interests of the Christian in heaven ; the other 
attends to his interests on the earth. One pleads in the higher 
court of the Lord ; the other in the lower court of the human 
conscience. 

(2) They differ again as to purpose. The object of the 
Son's pleading in the court-room of God is to secure the justifi- 
cation of his client and his discharge from the custody of law 
as a freeman in Christ Jesus; the object of the Spirit is to se- 
cure the condemnation of his client and his conviction under the 
law. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you 
that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter (Advocate) 
will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto 
you. And when he is come, he will reprove (convict) the world 
of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment ; of sin, because 
they believe not on me ; of righteousness, because I go to my 



228 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Father, and ye see me no more ; of judgment, because the prince 
of this world is judged" (Jno. 16:7-11). It was the office of 
the Father to plan redemption ; of the Son to execute that plan, 
and of the Spirit to apply that plan. Hence it was expedient for 
Christ to finish his section of the redemptional schedule and go 
away and send the Spirit to take up his department of applica- 
tion ; for the Father converts no sinner, and the Son converts 
no sinner, but only the Holy Spirit applies the benefits of the 
atonement to the life and experience of guilty men. It was ex- 
pedient, therefore, that Christ should finish the work of atone- 
ment and turn it over to the Holy Ghost to be applied. When 
the Spirit should come, the Redeemer puts into his mouth the 
synopsis of the great argument which he would make in the 
court-room of the human conscience, in his effort to convict the 
world. He would first plead sin, that which the accused is but 
ought not to be, and, specifically, the sin of unbelief in Christ; 
he would then plead righteousness, that which the sinner ought 
to be but is not, and use the ascension and triumph of Christ as 
the proof of his charge ; and then he would plead the judgment, 
that act which compares the is of a man's life with the ought- 
to-be of that life. The object of all this pleading at the bar of 
the conscience is to convict the soul and, as a wise adviser, pur- 
suade it to throw itself upon the mercy of God as it is in Christ 
Jesus and with humble confession of its sin cry out to him for 
forgiveness. Christ, on the other hand, pleading his merits in 
the sky, makes his client a defendant, who pleads not guilty for 
the reason of what his Saviour has done for him, and is justified 
before God. The one seeks the justification of his client in foro 
dei; the other seeks the conviction of his client in foro con- 
scientiae. My Saviour is my legal adviser in heaven, and the 
Spirit is my legal counsellor on earth. 

(3) These two advocacies differ as to the grounds of the 
respective pleadings. The Son pleads what has been done for 
his client; the Spirit pleads what has been done in his client. 
The one presents the objective, imputed righteousness of Christ 
as the reason why his client should be justified of the charges 
laid against him; and the other offers subjective and infused 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 229 

righteousness of Christ as the reason why his client should 
confess himself a sinner and throw himself on the mercy of the 
court. Christ presents his mediatorial obedience before his 
Father; the Spirit works upon our minds and hearts, enlighten- 
ing and quickening our conscience and moral perception so 
that we are able to see and appreciate our religious condition. 
The work of the one is complementary to the work of the other 
and together they make a complete whole ; but for Christ in 
heaven, the sinner would lose his case ; and but for the Spirit 
on the earth, the sinner would lose his case through his own per- 
verse and foolhardy behavior. No man is competent to plead 
his own cause in foro del or in foro conscientiae. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Christ: The King 

The Scriptures glow with the regal character of Christ; his 
crown and throne, his scepter and dominion, look out from the 
pages of prophecy and poetry, out of history and the gospels, 
out of epistles and apocalypse. "Yet have I set my King upon 
my holy hill of Zion" (Ps. 2:6). "Of the increase of his gov- 
ernment and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of 
David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it 
with judgment and justice from henceforth even for ever. The 
zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this" (Is. 9:7). "I saw 
in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came 
with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and 
they brought him near before him. And there was given him 
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, 
and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting 
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that 
which shall not be destroyed" (Dan. 7:13, 14). "Rejoice greatly, 
O daughter of Zion ; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem ; behold, 
thy King cometh unto thee ; he is just, and having salvation ; 
lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an 
ass" (Zech. 19:9). Thus do the Old Testament prophecies throb 
with the royalty of the predicted Messiah. 

Throughout the New Testament he is acclaimed the "Lord." 
After his baptism he went about preaching the "gospel of the 
kingdom." When he stood at Pilate's bar, the Roman asked 
him, "Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering, said 
unto him, "Thou say est it" (Mark 15:2). When they crucified 
him they placarded him, "This is the King of the Jews" (Matt. 
27:37). "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and 
given him a name which is above every name; that at the name 
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and of 
things in earth, and of things under the earth, and that every 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 231 

tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of 
God the Father" (Phil. 2 19-11). And when the apocalyptic angel 
opened heaven to the eye of John, he saw one who "hath on his 
vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and 
Lord of Lords" (Rev. 19:16). 

I. Purpose. — The idea of a kingdom was a central topic 
in all our Lord's conversations and parabolic instructions, and 
the realization of this royal dream, the establishment and per- 
fection of this kingdom, was the chief end of all his labors. To 
gather a body of subjects out of the world, which would be in- 
telligently loyal to his throne and zealous for the promotion of 
his glory; to administer over them a government which would 
be as beneficent to them as it was honoring to his Father; to 
subdue all his and their enemies by converting them into genuine 
friends and devoted adherents, or by incarcerating the incorigi- 
bly pugnacious in the prison house of despair ; to retrieve and 
restore the dominion of God upon the rebellious province of 
this earth; possessed for him superlative attractions. 

"Patriots have toiled, and in their country's cause 
Bled nobly ; and their deeds, as they deserve, 
Receive proud recompense. We give in charge 
Their names to the sweet lyre. The historic Muse 
Proud of the treasure, marches with it down 
To latest times, and Sculpture, in her turn, 
Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass 
To guard them, and to immortalize her trust." 

But earthly potentates have built their thrones out of other 
men's bones, gemmed their scepters with other men's tears, 
dyed their robes in other men's blood, and coined their plaudits 
out of other men's groans ; but the Christian's Redeemer founded 
his Mediatorial Empire upon the ruin of himself, transmuted his 
own sufferings into the songs of the saints and made his own 
cross the means of crowning and glorifying them. The history 
of the establishment of this Kingdom of Grace is without a 
parallel amid all those events in human history which have caused 



232 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the hearts of men to throb with admiration or to stand still in 
applause. Through his own blood he waded to his own throne 
and exercises his royal powers and prerogatives in order to apply 
the benefits of his sacrificial atonement to his people and make 
the earth, now drunk with curses and maledictions, vocal with 
the praises of his heavenly Father. In the exercise of his pro- 
phetical function he declared the plan of salvation ; in the exer- 
cise of his priestly office he executed that plan ; and now in the 
exercise of his kingly power he, by his word and Spirit, effectu- 
ally applies that plan and brings it into full fruition, displaying 
the unsullied glory of his Father and the ineffable bliss of his 
ransomed host. To conserve and perpetuate the results of his 
mediation he sits at the right hand of the Majesty on High and 
administers over the world the powers of a throne. "Wherefore, 
God hath highly exalted him;" his Mediatorial Kingdom is his 
reward for his fulfilment of the redemptive contract. 

II. Distinction. — This Mediatorial Kingdom of Christ as a 
Theanthropos must be distinguished from that dominion which 
he shared co-equally with the Father and the Spirit, by virtue 
of the fact that he was the Second Person in the Godhead and 
consubstantial with the other two and equal to them in power 
and glory. In what may be denominated the absolute kingdom of 
the Trinity we are not warranted in making distinctions as to 
sovereignty; there, in the inner circle of the unapproachable 
Godhead, the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are ab- 
solutely equal in power and honor and dominion and rulership. 
But beside this absolute kingdom of the Godhead, as different 
from it and yet subordinate to it, is the mediatorial kingdom of 
grace and redemption, which the Redeemer established by his 
incarnation, life and death; and in this kingdom he is the head 
and sovereign Lord. As God and man in two distinct natures 
but one person, he sits upon this throne, wears its crown and 
sways its scepter, the Lord of redemption, the King_ of grace 
on the holy hill of Zion. It is an imperium in imperio, a king- 
dom within a kingdom, a mediatorial kingdom included under 
and subordinate to the absolute kingdom of the Trinity. When 
God raised Christ from the dead, he "set him at his own right 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 233 

hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, 
and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not 
only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath 
put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all 
things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that 
filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:20-23). This special power and do- 
minion were granted to him as a mediatorial reward for that 
sublime service which he rendered in his incarnation, life and 
death. When this kingdom is fully consummated, "he shall see 
of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied." It is "the recom- 
pense of reward" upon which he has had his eye ever since he 
became a party to the covenant of grace. 

That he might realize this regal idea, that he might suc- 
cessfully erect this mediatorial kingdom, "all power (authority) 
in heaven and in earth was given into his hands" (Matt 28:18) ; 
the royal right and prerogative to make drafts upon the services 
and powers of every being in the universe — except one person — 
was bestowed upon him for redemptive purposes. "For he hath 
put all things under his feet. But when it is said all things are 
put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put 
all things under him" (1 Cor. 15:27). To achieve this result, 
he could command the services of the Holy Spirit, the third 
person of the almighty and sovereign Godhead, and send him 
into the world to convince it of sin and righteousness and judg- 
ment; he could lay under tribute the mightiest archangel which 
flies with blazing wing across the heavens and send him as a 
flaming spirit to minister to the heirs of salvation; he could lay 
his lawful hand upon the choicest human spirits and ordain them 
to the ministry to promote this royal enterprise; he could put 
the noose of his authority about the necks of the mightiest poten- 
tates in the earth and make the kingdoms of this world do his 
bidding; he could harness all the impersonal forces of nature 
and make them his servants in executing his redemptive will ; 
all things, but the Father, were put under his feet and bound 
to his service; he was made the head over all things to his 
church; as a Theanthropos, engaged in the establishment of the 
mediatorial kingdom, he had the lawful right, granted by his 



234 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Father, to conscript into his service all lower life of sublunary 
being, and to even impress the Holy Spirit himself and send 
him upon missions of regeneration and sanctification. But when 
he has achieved this sublime end, and the mediatorial kingdom 
of saints has been set up and consummated according to the 
primal archetype in the divine mind, then this special super- 
natural grant of prerogative and power will be, by him, sur- 
rendered back into the hands of his Father. "And when all 
things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also be 
subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be 
all and in all" (i Cor. 15:28). It is not the sovereign headship 
of the mediatorial kingdom which will be surrendered in the 
end; for Christ will be the redemptive head of his people for 
ever and they will be dependent upon him for their life and 
bliss throughout all the enduring ages of eternity; but it is this 
special grant of power which was given to him as a means to 
the end of the establishment of the kingdom of saving grace 
which will be restored to the Father's hand, and then Christ 
as the head with all his saints as the body and citizenry of his 
redemptive dominion will go under the sovereignty of his Father 
— a kingdom under a kingdom, that God may be head over all. 
"The head of Christ is God" (1 Cor. 11:3). The sacramental 
host will ever circle the mediatorial throne of Christ, and Christ 
will ever be the head of all the glorified saints; and Christ with 
his heavenly train of redeemed men and women will ever circle 
around his Father's throne, offering his worship and the worship 
of his people who ever more must approach God through him, 
saying, "Behold me, and the children whom thou hast given 
me." This is but saying that the mediatorial throne is "an ever- 
lasting throne," as it is described in Scripture; and there can 
never be any conflict between the two thrones, the mediatorial 
of which Christ is the crowned occupant and the throne of God 
as the representative of the absolute Godhead, for the same 
mind is in Christ Jesus, which is in the Father and the same 
mind is in the saints of Christ which is in Christ himself; they 
are Christlike, and Christ is Godlike. So the praises which rise 
from the mediatorial kingdom will meet and merge with and 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 235 

smell the harmonies which ever rise within the Trinitarian house- 
hold itself ; and God will be very happy in man, and man will 
be very happy in God, and heaven shall be and abound in the 
bliss which comes from Christ's harmonizing the kingdom of 
grace with the kingdom of God — the end for which he was 
born, suffered, and died. 

III. N^ames. — From different points of view this Med- 
iatorial Kingdom is given several names in the Scriptures, each 
indicating something important about its nature. 

(1) It is called the "Kingdom of God," because it was set 
up by the divine decree, and comes under the universal sover- 
eignty of the absolute throne of the Trinity. This appellation is 
given more than seventy-five times in the New Testament alone. 
Jesus began his ministry by "preaching the gospel of the king- 
dom of God" (Mark 1 :i4) ; during the forty days between resur- 
rection and ascension, he "spake of the things pertaining to the 
kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3); the apostles, in the exercise of 
their ministry, "expounded and testified the kingdom of God" 
(Acts 28:23) ; and John in the apocalyptic vision of the con- 
summation of things hears a loud voice in heaven proclaiming, 
"Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of God, 
and the power of his Christ" (Rev. 12:10). As it rises in the 
divine decree, has all its developmental process under the sov- 
ereign superintendence of Jehovah, and in its final and com- 
pleted form is still a sub-kingdom under the universal and ab- 
solute dominion of the Godhead, it is designated most fre- 
quently and emphatically the Kingdom of God. 

(2) It is called the "Kingdom of Christ," because the Re- 
deemer, in his theanthropic constitution as a divine-human be- 
ing, by his incarnation, sufferings and death, executed the de- 
cree for its erection and sits as its Lord upon its mediatorial 
throne and administers all its powers and government; the head- 
ship of Christ grounds the reality and appropriateness of this 
appellation. God "hath translated us into the kingdom of his 
dear Son" (Col. 1:13). "Verily I say unto you, There be some 
standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the 
Son of man coming in his kingdom" (Matt. 16:28). "Jesus said, 



236 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

my kingdom is not of this world ; if my kingdom were of this 
world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be de- 
livered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence" 
(Jno. 18:36). In many places the antecedent of the pronouns 
"his," "my" and "thy," when coupled with kingdom, is Christ. 
He is called a king throughout both Testaments, and the Apo- 
calypse reveals him in the consummation of all things seated on 
a throne in glory, with a capital inscription upon his vesture and 
upon his thigh, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." 
Because of his occupancy in his theanthropic person of the seat 
of sovereign power and administration in this mediatorial king- 
dom, it is properly and truly called the Kingdom of Christ. 

(3) It is called the "Kingdom of Grace," because the power, 
the force, the dynamics, of this mediatorial kingdom is the 
grace of the Holy Spirit ; he is to this kingdom what the sheriff, 
the army and the navy are to human kingdoms — the power of 
application and execution, the energy of efficiency. All its de- 
crees, laws, principles, ideals, are translated into glorious reali- 
ties by the grace of the Spirit, the almightiness of his strength. 
Its throne is called a "throne of grace" (Heb. 4:16) ; its law is 
said to be the "law of grace" (Rom. 6:14); its power is set 
forth as the "power of grace" (2 Cor. 12:9; I Cor. 4:20) ; and 
its gospel is the "gospel of the kingdom" (Matt. 4:23). Hence 
this mediatorial kingdom is denominated the Kingdom of the 
Gospel, the Kingdom of the Spirit, or the Kingdom of Grace. 

(4) It is called the "Kingdom of the Saints," because the 
citizens of this kingdom are the people of God, while all others 
are related to it as "strangers and foreigners." "Now, therefore 
ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with 
the saints, and of the household of God" (Eph. 2:19). "For 
our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven ; from whence also 
we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil 3:20). 
"Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living 
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company 
of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, 
which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and 
to the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb. 12:22, 23). 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 237 

Christians are made partakers "of the inheritance of the saints 
in light" (Col. 1:12). When therefore the mediatorial kingdom 
is designated from the population and citizenry of it, it is called 
the Kingdom of the Saints. 

(5) It is called the "Kingdom of Heaven," because of the 
state of blessedness which characterizes the internal life of that 
kingdom, whether conceived as established in the individual 
heart of the believer or consummated in its final and perfected 
form. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2). 
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven" (Matt. 5:3). Certain ones shall be called "least in the 
kingdom of heaven," and others shall be called "great in the 
kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:19). A multitude which no man 
can number shall come from all points of the compass, and 
"shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom 
of heaven" (Matt. 8:11). A large number of parables were 
spoken by our Lord, beginning, "the kingdom of heaven is like" 
(Matt. 13). If therefore this mediatorial kingdom of Christ 
be denominated from the internal state of peace and felicity 
which characterizes it, it is designated the Kingdom of Heaven. 
This state of glory, begun here below, will not come to its full 
and perfect fruition of bliss until the final consummation of the 
whole mediatorial programme of the Redeemer. 

IV. Characteristics. — The word kingdom basileia is 
used in two distinct senses ; the one concrete and the other 
abstract, (a) Concretely the term connotes that entire com- 
posite organization, including the king on his throne, the gov- 
ernment which he administers, the subjects over whom he bears 
rule, the domain which is under his dominion and all else which 
enters in to make up the concept of a royal state; (b) abstractly 
it signifies the royal government, the official administration of 
the monarchy. If one speaks of the Kingdom of Great Britain 
he may intend to mention in a phrase that entire royal state, 
including the king and his subjects and his territory and all other 
things belonging to and constituting a part of the public life of 
that particular government ; or he may mean by his phrase to 
signify the abstract government which is administered over 



238 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the Islands and their colonies ; he may be talking about only the 
kingship of the king. The expression is used both ways in 
Scripture concerning the mediatorial kingdom of Christ. When 
men are said to "enter into the kingdom," the first meaning is 
the concrete one, but when men are said to "receive the king- 
dom," which is the same thing as saying that the kingdom enters 
men, the second sense must be given to the word. Men "enter" 
the kingdom of Christ when they are introduced into the citizen- 
ship of that kingdom and are made units in that great com- 
posite idea, but men "receive" the kingdom of Christ when his 
Spirit enters their hearts and changes their subjective loyalty 
from devotion to Satan into allegiance to the Redeemer. We 
need to think of the king with his domain and people, on the 
one hand, and of the authority and rulership and government of 
the king dispensed from his throne, on the other hand. But be- 
sides these ideas, common generically to all conceptions of a 
royal state, there are certain characteristics which are especially 
predicable of the mediatorial kingdom of the Saviour of sinners. 

(1) It is a spiritual kingdom, (a) Because the human spirit 
is the territory and domain of this kingdom : "Neither shall they 
say, Lo here, or lo there ! for, behold, the kingdom of God is 
within you" (Luke 17:21). "For the kingdom of God is not 
meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17). (b) Because only those who are 
spiritually minded can become the citizens of this kingdom: 
"Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom as a little child, he 
shall not enter therein" (Mark 10:15). (c) Because the modes 
of its becoming, of its development and expansion in the world, 
are not visible and sensational : "The kingdom of God cometh 
not with observation" (Luke 17:20). (d) Because its instrumen- 
tality is the truth, and not the sword, by which it erects itself, 
defends and propagates itself, making none of its appeals to 
force but depending entirely upon what it addresses to the. minds 
and hearts of men : "And I will give unto thee the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19). (e) Because 



Christian Salvation- -Its Doctrine and Experience 239 

it is distinctly contrasted with the kingdoms of this world, and 
specifically declared to be not of it, while in it: "My kingdom 
is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then 
would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the 
Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence" (Jno. 18:36). 
"Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, 
and unto God the things that are God's" (Matt. 22:21). (f) 
But chiefly because the Holy Spirit is the life and power, the 
energy and effective force of this kingdom : "He breathed on 
them, and saith, Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (Jno. 20:22). "For 
the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power" (1 Cor. 4:20). 
Spiritual in its sphere, spiritual in its subjects, spiritual in its 
modes, spiritual in its instrumentality, spiritual in its contrasts, 
spiritual in its life and power, it is thoroughly illegitimate to 
secularize it in any way or in any matter. It cannot be properly 
subjected to the civil state, as the Erastians would do; nor can 
it in any legitimate way be merged with the civil organization, so 
as to make it either subordinate to or superior to the common- 
wealth; the two kingdoms — the state and the church — are en- 
tirely separate and distinct entities, both having divine origins 
but separate spheres and functions, and can never be allied with- 
out degrading the divine ideal. The spirituality of the kingdom 
of Christ deeply and radically separates it from the kingdom 
of Caesar, and Caesarism in the church is as deplorable as ec- 
clesiasticism in the state ; the parson ought to stay out of politics 
and the politician ought to stay out of the church, on the prin- 
ciple that everything ought to stay in its own place and atttend 
to its own business; only by the execution of this programme 
can the world have any peace or happiness. 

(2) It was a progressive kingdom. It was a fresh and sig- 
nificant thought put forth by our Lord that his kingdom was to 
come to its fulness and perfection by a gradual growth, requir- 
ing a time and a process to come to the final stage of its de- 
velopment. Gradually it was to come to the fulness of its power 
and authority and prestige in the earth ; gradually it was to gather 
its full complement of redeemed citizens ; gradually it was to 
extend its borders until its domain should reach out to the edges 



240 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

of the predetermined territory ; gradually it was to emerge from 
small and unpretentious beginnings until it should, in the final 
consummation, fill all the "new heavens and new earth with 
righteousness." Christ began his ministry by proclaiming that 
his kingdom was "at hand," subsequently he declared that it 
was already present : "If I with the finger of God cast out 
devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you" (Luke 
1 1 :20) . On the other hand he taught his disciples to pray, 
"Thy kingdom come" (Luke 11:2). The explanation of this 
apparent contradiction is not far to seek; the kingdom did not 
come fully at once with a great apocalypse of glory, but invisibly 
and secretly, like a grian of mustard seed or a little leaven (Mark 
4:26-29). The full realization of the kingdom was a promise 
which girdled the future and had to wait, for its final and glori- 
ous form, the ripening of God's providential dealings with Jews 
and Gentiles. 

(3) It was to become a universal kingdom. It was to spread 
from sea to sea, to progress from stage to stage, until the reign 
of Christ should be universal. The mustard seed must grow, 
until it becomes a great tree and fills the whole earth ; the leaven 
must swell the dough, until the whole lump has been leavened. 
"I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, 
until he come whose right it is ; and I will give it him" (Ezek. 
21:27). And in the vision of the end there were great voices 
heard in heaven crying, "The kingdoms of this world are be- 
come the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall 
reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 11:15). The Redeemer will ap- 
ply his royal power until he has fully and finally established his 
blessed mediatorial kingdom, with such a prerogative and pres- 
tige, with such a citizenry, with such a territorial domain, as 
becomes this King and the dignity of his Father who has or- 
dained it. 

(4) But in bringing all this dominion of his throne into its 
glorious reality Christ will employ his Church as an instrumen- 
tality. This defines for us the relation between the Church and 
the Kingdom, the ecclesia and the basileia. It is not the 
relation of identity; the Church is not the same thing as the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 241 

Kingdom; but the Church is an organization which Christ has 
formed, with certain officers, laws and institutions, and rights 
and prerogatives, as a means /or the establishment of his King- 
dom; the ecclesia exists for the sake of the basilcia. To 
belong to the Church, therefore, is not necessarily to belong 
to the Kingdom ; but to belong to the Church, is to belong to 
Christ's working corps, to his army militant, to that divine so- 
ciety which he has set up on the earth as the propaganda of his 
royal cause in the earth. His Church is the human organiza- 
tion upon which he relies, through his Spirit, for the triumph 
of his cause. The very meaning and purpose of the Church in 
the earth makes it a missionary institute and binds it to devote 
itself exclusively and industriously to the establishment, in an 
instrumentary way, of the mediatorial Kingdom of the Re- 
deemer ; and the sublimest motive which can play upon the Chris- 
tian heart to urge it to aggressive enterprises is derived from the 
fact that the success of the Church's mission is the triumph of 
the Kingdom of the Redeemer. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Humiliation of Christ 

"Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that 
in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries 
of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross ; 
in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for 
a time." 

I. Incarnation. — The moment Christ consented to become 
incarnate, that instant he accepted a proposition to descend from 
a higher to a lower form of life ; and the stoop was as great 
as finite humanity is an inferior form of being to infinite di- 
vinity. When he took to himself a true body and a reasonable 
soul, belonging to the grade of man's life, he degraded himself 
by so much as the level of man's life is below the grade of God's 
life ; he came down from a higher peak of existence to a lower 
mode of existence. "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman" 
(Gal. 4:4). "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" 
(Jno. 1:14). "Who being in the form of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God ; but made himself of no repu- 
tation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made 
in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he 
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the 
death of the cross" (Phil 2:6-8). The humiliation of this de- 
scent to man's level was accentuated by several circumstances : 
( 1 ) By the fact that he united with human nature at its bottom, 
being born of a lowly woman, whose ancestry had been spoiled 
of all its honors and position and wealth in earthly society; (2) 
by the fact that his birthplace was not some royal palace with 
all the furnishings and surroundings of pomp and elegance, but 
a stable for the housing of animals, with a manger for a cradle; 
and (3) by the fact that the human race and family to which 
he connected himself were the most dishonored and persecuted 
people of all the world. "And she brought forth her first born 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 243 

son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a 
manger" (Luke 2\j). He had to flee for his life when yet an 
infant ; he worked for a living in Nazareth ; he had to go hun- 
gry, and unhoused, without money even for taxes, with few 
friends, and many enemies — all incident upon the fact that he 
became man by act of his will when he might have remained in 
glory in the form of God. These things emphasize the depth 
of the humiliation to which he subjected himself when he be- 
came incarnate. 

While he thus truly humbled himself in becoming man, yet 
he did not pollute himself, for he united with sinless humanity. 
He had become defiled and unclean had not the nature which he 
took been first sanctified and purged of all taint of sin. Conse- 
quently his honor remained unsullied, and his character un- 
smirched, and his conscience unoffended, in all his incarnate, 
though humble, human life. 

Those who hold exaggerated views as to the exalted nature 
of humanity intrinsically considered; who think humanity and 
divinity are in reality on the same metaphysical plane of being ; 
who look upon humanity as close akin to divinity, so that it is 
improper to see any difference in the rank of being; cannot hold 
that Christ humiliated himself in becoming incarnate. There 
was no step downwards, when he became man, for the reason 
that humanity really ranks equal to divinity. But all those 
who hold that divine life lies upon a plateau infinitely higher 
than the most exalted station humanity can possibly attain unto, 
have no difficulty in seeing that the incarnation, while not a 
corrupting degradation, was yet a real and true humiliation, and 
would have been such even if he had taken humanity at the top 
instead of at the bottom. 

II. Law. — When the Son of God became incarnate he 
brought himself under law as a subject and servant. There is 
nothing inherently humiliating in a moral person being under 
moral law, but the Redeemer was primarily the source of all law, 
and all rules and orders issued from him as from the fons et 
origo of all authority; but he put himself under precepts, com- 
mands and obligations and laid upon himself prohibitions and 



244 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

injunctions. A law which was delivered to others and put them 
under bonds is now turned upon him and speaks to him in as 
mandatory tones as ever it spake to human creatures ; he who was 
above law as a rule of obedience, is now distinctly subject to 
law, liable to its censures and able to command its blessings only 
as he complies with its letter and its spirit. 

But there is a deeper element of humiliation in this phase 
of the descent of Christ ; he assumed a position under a law 
already violated, which had obligations of suffering to be borne 
and incurred penalties to be endured. He not only went into 
the brick-yards of Egypt under an Egyptian task-master, who 
would use his flail upon his disobedient back did he fail, but he 
assumed the task at the moment when the Israelite had broken 
down and was now under the obligation to bring in the full and 
regular tale of bricks without straw, and he must also catch up 
the task which was behind-hand — Christ must obey the law both 
in its penal and in its preceptive demands. As a debtor he must 
at once pay the original amount of money, and the incurred 
debts besides. It is a humiliating position in which to find one- 
self who had heretofore been Lord of all and above all. To a 
sovereign, law originating from above him and being applied to 
him by a power superior to him is irksome ; but to be a sov- 
ereign and then be brought to the knees and be required to pay 
fines and drink of the cup of penalty to its dregs is anything 
else but exalting and dignifying. To be under orders is humili- 
ating ; but to be in the grasp of violated law is a deeper degrada- 
tion. "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under 
law" (Gal. 4:4). "Think not that I am come to destroy the 
law, or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" 
(Matt. 5:17). t-(T^ 

The Redeemer went under the law as a rule of duty, as a 
covenant of life and as a broken covenant whose penalty was 
already impending. His voluntary assumption of such a posi- 
tion was a humiliation, for the law lays its claims not upon ab- 
stract natures, but upon persons ; and this humiliation is deep- 
ened immeasurably by the fact that he voluntarily accepted the 
accrued curse of the broken covenant. "For it is written, 



Christian Salvation— lis Doctrine and Experience 245 

Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are 
written in the book of the law to do them. . . . Christ 
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse 
for us ; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a 
tree" (Gal. 3:10-13). It was a humiliation to Christ who was 
not a natural subject of law to be put under law; but it was a 
far intenser humiliation of him to put him under the curse and 
hang him on a tree. 

In assuming these legal obligations the Redeemer did not 
contaminate himself, for the reason that he did fully all that 
was required of him, in keeping both the precept and the penalty 
of the law, and at last died with a conscience void of offence 
towards God and towards man. He was sinless in all the humilia- 
tion he endured. 

III. Wrath of God. — As the Second Person in the 
adorable Trinity the Son was "the only begotten and well be- 
loved Son" of the Father; and it is impossible to overstate the 
exuberance and wealth of that affection which his Father be- 
stowed upon him. After his incarnation, in his own person, 
and absolutely considered, Christ was often declared by the 
Father to be his "beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased" 
(Matt. 3:17). "For he received from God the Father honour 
and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the ex- 
cellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" 
(2 Pet. 1:17). These expressions of affection and satisfaction 
were based not only upon what he was in himself, holy and 
harmless and separate from sinners as a mediator, but also upon 
what, in his official capacity, he did ; he, as the mediatorial ser- 
vant, always did that which pleased his heavenly Father: "For 
I do always those things that please him" (Jno. 8:29). "My 
meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his 
work" (Jno. 4:34). No being, much less such a righteous and 
perfect being as God the Father, could fail to approve and ap- 
plaud another person, such as Christ, who so faithfully and per- 
fectly and intelligently pleased him in all things. But in his office 
as mediator the Redeemer had assumed the sinner's place, taken 
upon his shoulders the sinner's guilt, and on him was laid the 



246 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

iniquity of all his people. In this federal character, as a Second 
Adam, he was obnoxious to the wrath of God ; personally, God 
was delighted with him; but federally, he was angry with him. 
This wrath was based upon human guilt and poured out upon 
him because of human offence, but this displeasure of the deity 
terminated upon the person of Christ vicariously; a real deluge 
of wrath, albeit it was because of imputed guilt and not at all 
for personal sin. 

This divine wrath beat upon him ; it sent upon him all the 
miseries of this life, with which he was afflicted while a sojourner 
in our world ; it bore upon him until it brought him to the cross 
on Calvary, and in the dying hour God averted his face, and 
forsook him. As he approached Gethsemane, he said, "My soul 
is exceeding sorrowful even unto death" (Matt. 26:38). In the 
moment of death, he cried aloud, "My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). (1) Either God fearfully 
afflicted a person who in no sense had ever displeased him, which 
would be an intolerable criticism upon the character of the Deity ; 

(2) or Christ, who had habitually pleased him, had in the last 
days of his life committed some crime or terrible offence against 
his Father to provoke so awful a display of wrath, which would 
be a serious criticism upon the integrity and sinlessness of Christ ; 

(3) or the Redeemer was federally guilty, the bearer of the ini- 
quities of his people, and therefore the divine providence smote 
him to death, not as one personally offensive, but putatively and 
vicariously obnoxious to justice and law. For some reason, he 
who came out of the bosom of his Father and who was an ob- 
ject of infinite complacency and delight died an awful death un- 
der the divine frown. To thus expose himself, and thus endure 
the displeasure of the being whose good will he esteemed above 
all else, for the sake of the sinners whom he would save, was an 
act of amazing condescension and humiliation. 

IV. Death. — Death is the most humiliating fact in human 
history. A corpse is but the consummate result of all those 
forces which seek to bring down man to the very bottom of de- 
gradation and shame. To see human strength dissolve into ab- 
solute impotence; to see human beauty decay into loathsome cor- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 247 

ruption ; to see human greatness melt into the dust of the grave ; 
to see the human body become food for worms, is one of the 
most repulsive visions the eye of man has to look upon. With 
flowers and music we seek to veil the hideousness of death ; with 
poetry and art the world endeavors to idealize it and paint it so 
as to make it tolerable for those who have to look upon it with 
the sure consciousness that they too must presently experience 
it. I hate death ; I hate it in all its forms ; I hate it everywhere ; 
it violates every noble thing in me; it strips me of every vestige 
of honor and respectability; I long for a world where there will 
be no dead thing but where every created thing will live and 
thrive and be happy for ever. But such is not this world of 
ours; for "death has reigned from Moses to Adam;" ridged the 
surface of the earth with human graves and pointed to the tomb 
as the goal to which all human paths surely lead. It is "the king 
of terrors," the "last enemy." The Bible does not introduce us 
to it as our "good friend death," but as that relentless enemy, 
which can be overcome and transformed only by the redeeming 
power of Christ. 

The natural horror of death is accentuated by the cause 
which brings it upon the race. That cause is not the natural and 
automatic operation of nature pulling down the human organism, 
but its deepest cause is ethical. It was in the beginning attached 
to transgression as a judicial consequence (Gen. 2:17); "death 
came by sin" (Rom. 5:12) ; "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 
6:23) ; and "the sting of death is sin" (1 Cor. 15:56). Death is 
not only an abnormality, but it is a dishonorable event which 
attaches disgrace to the being who experiences it; its cause is 
ethical; it is the infliction of judicial displeasure. It smirches 
reputation, fame and honor, and stigmatizes all upon whom it 
lays its hand. Had there been no sin, no man had said "to cor- 
ruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother 
and my sister" (Job. 17:14). 

But the Son of God drank of "this cup" of death; he died 
the painful and shameful death of the cross! It was a long 
step downwards from the blessed bosom of the Trinity to the 
bottom of the grave! It was an awful experience to exchange 



248 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the bliss of heaven for the agonies of Calvary ! It was an amaz- 
ing condescension to give up the plaudits of angels for the crown 
of thorns and disgraceful cross ! And the sting of the humilia- 
tion to him was in the fact that, while conscious of his personal 
innocence, he was at the same time conscious of his federal 
guilt and that his death was, therefore, penal and not dis- 
ciplinary ! 

As his hour approached, the evening before actual death in 
Gethsemane, he showed a strange hesitancy, an actual shrinking 
from the awful ordeal. This strangeness of our Lord's hesita- 
tion will be emphasized if we look at the primary attitude which 
he took concerning it. After Peter confessed that he was "the 
Christ, the Son of the living God," he began to speak definitely 
about his death : "From that time began Jesus to show unto his 
disciples, that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many 
things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, 
and the third day be raised up" (Matt. 16:21). The necessity 
of death was laid upon him; he must go up to Jerusalem, and 
there he must suffer many things. This necessity of death was 
not physical but moral, for he said, "I have power to lay down 
my life, and I have power to take it again." And our Lord 
clearly understood the meaning and significance of his death: 
"For the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). 
Then why the Gethsemane hesitation, and shrinking from a death 
which he for a long time foresaw and which was, in a true sense, 
the purpose of his incarnation? 

"My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from 
me." One would naturally expect the Redeemer to approach 
his death with moral eagerness and to be congratulating himself 
that he was now on the eve of the final termination of all his 
humiliation and of the accomplishment of the very purpose of 
his incarnation. On the contrary, he seems to draw back and 
to cry to his Father, If it be possible let me off from this ordeal. 

Some of his rationalistic critics tell us that in Gethsemane 
he was seized with a sudden fear and was temporarily overtaken 
with nervous collapse ; and in his dread plead to be released from 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 249 

his compact. But no one who truly respects his Lord and ap- 
preciates his character can for a moment entertain this thought. 
Many a criminal has met death without nervous prostration ; 
how much more must have been the bravery of Christ, who un- 
derstood the full beneficence of his death ! 

Others tell us that, while Jesus was willing to die when it 
was necessary, his soul was oppressed by the fact that men 
were so obtuse as make themselves criminals in his execution. 
The thing which he hated, which was so dreadfully oppressing 
him, was the fact that his death would be implicated with crim- 
inality on the part of the men whom he was dying to save. "From 
death as such he does not shrink, but from its mode and agencies, 
from death under the form and conditions which involved its 
authors in what appears inexplicable guilt, his whole nature re- 
coils." This whole view is absolutely untenable, for Jesus long 
knew that he could not go hence except through the agency of 
wicked men. The view is redemptionally superficial and over- 
lays the whole scene with mere sentimentality. It construes 
Christ as shrinking from the sort of hands at which he was to 
perish; he shrinks not at death, but at the executioners. 

In Gethsemane our Lord was about to die, there and then. 
Sorrow had rolled in upon him until he was in a bloody sweat, 
while as yet not a hand of physical violence had been laid upon 
him. If he does ; if he collapses in death in the garden, his 
death will be premature; his "hour" had not yet come. If he 
should there and then die in Gethsemane, the whole redemptional 
programme is a failure ; prophecy will be falsified ; his Father 
will be proved untruthful ; his atonement will fall short. Hence 
he prays to his Father, begging that "this cup" — this cup of im- 
mediate and impending death — might pass. He is not praying 
for escape from death on tomorrow, but for release from death 
today. He really prays that he may live until tomorrow and 
come to the cross and be crucified according to the divine schedule. 
The "cup" was death in the garden, there and then ; he was heard 
and answered ; that cup did pass ; his human nature was bolstered 
by angels from the sky and lived to be crucified the next day on 
the cross on Calvary. He did not shrink from the very death 



250 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

he came to die, as terrible as was that death ; there was not here 
any nervous weakness nor any repenting that he must go at the 
hands of wicked men; but his cry to God was to save him from 
death in the garden that he might die on the cross. The one, 
death in Gethsemane, would have nullified his mission ; the 
other, death on the cross, would fulfill all prophecy and effectuate 
his redemptional plan ; he prayed for life in Gethsemane that he 
might die on Calvary. The next day he was lifted upon the 
cross and he did not then cry for deliverance, but he did cry 
with a loud voice, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me?" He yielded up the ghost under his Father's wrath, and 
in the darkness of his Father's displeasure. Death in itself was 
awful; death at the hands of angry fellowmen was also more 
dreadful; but death under the wrath of God was unutterably 
awful; it broke the Redeemer's heart. What a humiliation for 
the Son of God to subject himself to ! 

There are three theories as to the physical cause of the 
death of Christ : 

(1) It is held by some that he came to the cross emaciated 
in body and depleted in strength in consequence of the strenuous 
life which he had lived, so that a few hours of physical suffering 
were enough to complete the work of death ; he died by nervous 
prostration. Under the hard life which he had lived, under the 
weary trial during the previous night, the scourging of the Roman 
soldier given under Pilate's order, under the exhaustion incident 
to carrying his heavy cross to Golgotha, there was left, we are 
told, but little physical force in him ; a few hours of suffering 
were sufficient to cause the last tide of life to run out ; and so he 
yielded up the ghost naturally as the result of sheer physical ex- 
haustion. This is the view held and urged by all the humanita- 
rian interpreters of life, who are zealous to eliminate every trace 
of the supernatural from the life of the Redeemer. But we 
must bear in mind that he was a young man in the hey-day .of his 
manhood, in the very prime and flower of his strength, who had 
lived a sinless and correct moral life, who had not wasted his 
energies in the indulgence of vice and intemperance ; that on 
the day of the crucifixion he was physically strong enough to 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 251 

start with his cross to Calvary and that in the very hour of 
death he was strong enough to cry with a loud voice, which 
would not have been the case had he died by gradual exhaustion. 

(2) The second theory takes the ground that Christ at the 
supreme moment sovereignly dismissed his human spirit from 
his body by a voluntary act of his will. This hypothesis rests 
principally upon that great saying of his : "No man taketh it from 
me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down 
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have 
I received of my Father" (Jno. 10:18). His death was not a 
suicide, because he had received a "commandment of his Father" 
to lay down his own life. At the moment, therefore, when he 
had suffered to that degree necessary to complete his atonement, 
he cried, "It is finished," and voluntarily dismissed his spirit. He 
did not, therefore, truly and strictly perish at the hands of his 
enemies but was himself the active agent in laying down his life. 
His enemies then would be chargeable with the intent to put him 
to death, but not with the fact of his death. 

(3) The third view takes the ground that the Redeemer 
died literally of heart-rupture. This is the view of Hanna and 
Geikie and Stroude, a Scotch physician, who reviewed the death 
of Christ from the point of view of a surgeon giving expert 
testimony before a coroner's jury. The following facts are 
pointed to as the chief supports of this hypothesis : 

(a) On the evening before he died, in Gethsemane, his "soul 
was exceeding sorrowful even unto death," or almost unto death. 
At that time there was the physical phenomenon of the "bloody 
sweat," caused by mental sorrow, for as yet not a hand of violence 
and injury had been laid upon him; and this phenomenon indi- 
cates that some physical catastrophe was impending. The woes 
of his soul had brought him to the very verge of the grave, and 
he cried mightily to God to send him help that he might not 
perish there and then. "By reason of sorrow the heart is broken," 
and post mortem examinations do sometimes reveal the fact that 
some of the sorrowful children of men do actually die of a broken 
heart; how much more intense must have been the sorrow of 
Christ than that of any human being ! 



252 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

(b) The sorrow which was almost unto death in Geth- 
semane returned upon him the next day on Calvary and there re- 
ceived no surcease but deluged him in the darkness of his Father's 
hidden face. With a piercing cry, "My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me?" he bowed his head in death. That last cry, 
very loud, indicates that the Redeemer perished from some sort 
of stroke and not by the gradual ebbing of his life tides through 
physical exhaustion. 

(c) The quickness with which he yielded up the ghost after 
being hung on the cross points to some sudden and abrupt termi- 
nation of his life. The cross consisted of an upright piece, a 
transverse section for the arms and a peg upon which to straddle 
the body to prevent its weight from tearing out the nails. The 
only physical suffering inflicted was caused by the nails driven 
through the hands and the feet. It was consequently the slowest 
form of execution and was resorted to by the Roman government 
for the purpose of prolonging the tortures of death. At sun- 
set, the law in mercy permitted the legs of crucified persons to 
be broken in order to hasten the termination of misery. There 
are instances on record where crucified wretches languished on 
the cross for seven mortal days. But in the afternoon when the 
officers came upon their mission of grewsome mercy to break the 
legs of Christ and the two criminals who were crucified with 
him, they found the Lord already dead — within three hours after 
he was lifted up. But the two thieves were yet alive, and were 
dispatched by the clubs of the soldiers. Why did this young man, 
Jesus of Nazareth, in the flower of health and vigor, perish so 
much more quickly than did the two thieves, whom we may 
readily believe had lived in a manner to seriously discount their 
ability to endure a long seige of suffering on the cross? There 
must have been at work in Christ, effecting the dissolution of 
his human soul and body, something which did not operate in 
the case of the two thieves. What was it, but the spiritual sor- 
row which in Gethsemane came so near putting him in his grave ? 

(d) But the soldier's spear served the purpose of a post 
mortem examination. When he thrust it into the side of the 
Redeemer, there gushed forth a stream of "water and blood." 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 253 

Ordinarily in death by natural causes, that is, by gradual ex- 
haustion, there is little or no liquid in the pericardium. The 
heart is a double conical shaped muscular bag, with two compart- 
ments divided from each other by a middle wall of partition, and 
hanging loosely in a membraneous sack, called the pericardium. 
In death by heart-rupture the blood is forced through the fissure 
into this pericardium, where the extravasated blood is quickly 
coagulated into the red cresementum and the colorless serum. 
When the pericardium is opened under these circumstances the 
phenomenon of "blood and water" makes its appearance. As- 
suming that Christ died of heart-rupture, and that the soldier's 
spear penetrated the pericardium, then the phenomenon of "blood 
and water" which John saw would be physically accounted for; 
otherwise it is difficult of explanation. 

If this were the physical cause of the death of Christ, how 
pathetic! The "Man of Sorrows" had his heart literally broken 
by the woes of his people; there was the piercing cry following 
the deathstroke ; but the cruel nails prevented him from throw- 
ing his hands across his breast and clasping his breaking heart! 
How sinful is sin ! How sympathetic and loving was Jesus ! 

V. Power of Death. — From Friday evening to Sunday 
morning the Lord of Glory continued under the power of death; 
a subject of the kingdom of the last enemy. This is the final in- 
stalment of his humiliation. His body was sealed up in the 
tomb, separated from his human soul, but still united to his divine 
nature; but it did not see corruption, because, perhaps, it was 
still united to his divine nature, which acted as its preservative. 
His human spirit, we may infer from what he said to the peni- 
tent thief who died by his side on the cross, went to paradise 
and awaited the morning of his resurrection, the hour of the com- 
mencement of his exaltation. This item of his humiliation is 
expressed in the so-called Apostles' creed by the descensus ad 
inferos clause. 

This creed was begun by Irenaeus in A. D., 200, and com- 
pleted by Pirminius in A. D., 750. In A. D., 390, Rufinus added 
the clause, descendit in inferna. This clause has received differ- 
ent interpretations by different parties. 



254 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

(a) The Romanists think that Christ, during the three days 
of death, went to the Limbus Patrum, that compartment of 
Hades, in which the Old Testament saints waited in confinement 
for the revelation and application to them of the salvation which 
he effected by his death on the cross. But the place is purely 
supposititious, the visit is supposititious and the mission is sup- 
posititious. 

(b) Lutherans hold that his death was the last act in the 
drama of his humiliation, and that the descensus was the first 
act in his exaltation, and that his visit to the disembodied world 
was for the purpose of triumphing over Satan and the powers of 
darkness. This, again, is purely speculative and without any 
warrant in divine revelation. 

(c) The Church of England, as interpreted by Bishop Pear- 
son, thinks that Christ really went to the place of the damned to 
consummate the expiation of sin and to destroy the power of 
hell over the redeemed. In this view, Christ's humiliation did 
not stop short of his actual descent into hell, there to atone for 
the sins of his people and set them free from the dominion of 
Satan. 

(d) Second Probationists think that the Redeemer went 
into the disembodied world to make an offer of salvation to 
those who had passed out of this world prior to his advent and 
who had had no opportunity to act upon the overtures of the 
gospel. But this too is purely speculative. 

(e) The Westminster Confession of Faith interprets the 
phrase metaphorically, and affixes this explanatory clause, "con- 
tinued in the state of the dead." That is, this famous and con- 
servative document declines to dogmatize upon what Christ did, 
and where he went, during the three days of his death, and con- 
tents itself with the safe statement that he continued under the 
power of death until his resurrection. 

The passage of Scripture most employed in connection with 
this phase of the humiliation is the following : "For Christ hath 
also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might 
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened 
by the Spirit; by which also he went and preached unto the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 255 

spirits in prison ; which sometime were disobedient, when once 
the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the 
ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved 
by water" (1 Pet. 3:18-20). Here a certain preaching, its mode 
and result are set forth. Who was the preacher? Christ. How 
did he preach ? Not in person at all, but by his Spirit. To whom 
did he preach ? To those antediluvians who are now at the writ- 
ing of Peter "spirits in prison." When did he preach to these 
persons? In the days of Noah, while the ark was building. What 
human preacher did Christ employ through whom to preach to 
these persons by his Spirit? Noah, who was "a preacher of 
righteousness." What was the result of this preaching? Eight 
souls were saved. This simple exposition of this much litigated 
passage shows : ( 1 ) that Christ did not at any time preach the 
preaching here referred to in person, but that he did it by Noah 
through his Spirit; (2) that, however he may have done this 
preaching, he did not do it in the interim between his death and 
his resurrection, but in the days the ark was a preparing; (3) 
that the persons to whom he preached this gospel of the just dy- 
ing for the unjust were not spirits in prison at the time of the 
preaching but that they were incarcerated at the moment Peter 
here refers to them and the preaching which was done to them. 
Consequently the text has no sort of bearing upon the descensus 
ad inferos. 

We must leave the subject where the Scriptures leave it: 
Christ continued under the power of death for a part of three 
days ; but what transpired or whither he went we can only con- 
jecture and guess at best. "Christ's humiliation after his death 
consisted in his being buried, and continuing in the state of the 
dead, and under the power of death until the third day, which 
hath been otherwise expressed in these words, He descended into 
hell." 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Exaltation of Christ 

I. Possibility. — As the second person in the Godhead the 
Son of God was of the same substance with the Father and co- 
equal to him in power and glory; it was consequently impossible 
for him, in his Trinitarian life, to experience any increase of 
honor or receive any fresh accretions of glory ; his essential dis- 
tinction was infinitely perfect. But his mediatorial glory was 
subject to the clouding of his humiliation and is susceptible of 
fresh instaurations of light and honor. By the union of his 
divine nature to a human nature, and particularly under the em- 
barrassing conditions under which that union was actually ef- 
fected, the outward manifestation of the glory of Christ's person 
had been veiled and compromised in the eyes of his creatures ; in 
the acceptance of the mediatorial office he accepted a position 
of subordination to his Father and was subject to orders from his 
throne; accepting the position of sinners, he had voluntarily hu- 
miliated himself and made himself of no reputation; therefore 
as a Theanthropos it was possible to raise him in the rank of 
honor and add to the brightness of his praises. Drawing a dis- 
tinction between the essential glory of Christ as the eternal Son 
of God and his mediatorial glory as the incarnate Saviour of 
sinners it is easy to see how it is impossible to heighten the one 
and at the same time possible to enhance the other. It is, in- 
deed, the chief end of the Church and the highest vocation of all 
creatures to promote the declarative glory of the Redeemer ; for 
while no man can really and truly add to the substance and con- 
tents of Christ's honor, which has been fully conferred upon 
him by his Father, yet it is the highest duty of every creature 
and the sublimest honor which he can confer upon himself to 
proclaim the honors of his Saviour abroad. "Wherefore God 
hath highly exalted him" (Phil. 2:9). "Looking unto Jesus the 
author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set be- 
fore him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 2$j 

at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2). "And 
being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst 
of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed 
with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a 
golden girdle. His head and his hair were white like wool, as 
white as snow ; and his eyes were as a flame of fire ; and his feet 
like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace ; and his voice 
as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand 
seven stars ; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword ; 
and his countenance was the sun shineth in his strength. And 
when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead" (Rev. 1 :i2-i7). 

II. Items. — "The state of Christ's exaltation comprehend- 
eth his resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of the 
Father, and his coming again to judge the world." The items in 
the exaltation of Christ as a mediator are: (1) Resurrection; 
(2) Ascension; (3) Session; (4) Judgment. 

III. Resurrection. — The Redeemer's first step in the as- 
censive scale was from the bottom of the grave back into life. 
He took up the life which he had laid down, overthrowing the 
very power of death. Nor will he stop in his upward course 
until he has climbed back to the right hand of the Father, whence 
he descended when he undertook the mediatorial office. If 
Christ be not risen : (a) He is not the Messiah, and all Old 
Testament prophecies remain unfulfilled; (b) His claim to be 
the Son of God has been unproved and invalidated; (c) God has 
put no public seal of approval and acceptance upon him and his 
work; (d) His redemptive undertaking is a failure, and the 
saints, who went federally with him down into the grave, also 
remain there in the tomb with him; (e) He is no advocate for 
those who trust him in the Father's court and all they who have 
committed their cause to him are relying upon a dead man as a 
friend and helper. "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching 
vain . . . your faith is vain ... ye are yet in your 
sins . . . then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ 
are perished ... we are of all men most miserable" (1 
Cor. 15:14-19). 



258 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

The resurrection of Christ is therefore of most fundamental 
import to soteriology, because it does two things at once: (1) it 
completes the scheme of atonement and (2) proves the divinity 
and trustworthiness of the whole scheme. The entire cause of 
Christ and Christianity fails if the resurrection be not a fact. 
The following is an outline of the argument for the fact of the 
resurrection of Christ. 

(1) It was predicted by the Old Testament prophets, and 
if he has not risen, they are all falsified ; and if they are falsified 
quoad hoc, the old maxim is applicable to all the writers of the 
Old Testament, falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. "David speak- 
eth concerning him. . . . Thou wilt not leave my soul in 
hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption" 
(Acts. 2:24-27; Ps. 16:10). 

(2) The Redeemer himself predicted his resurrection ; and 
therefore it occurred, else he was a false prophet — a prophet who 
spoke beyond his knowledge, or, knowing better, lied. Jesus going 
up to Jerusalem said to his twelve disciples, "Behold, we go up to 
Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief 
priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 
and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and 
to crucify him; and the third day he shalli rise again" (Matt. 
20:17-19). "I lay down my life that I might take it again" (Jno. 
10:17). The chief priests and the Pharisees, his bitterest ene- 
mies, so understood him and reported to Pilate that he had said, 
"After three days I will rise again" (Matt. 27:63). The angel 
also reported him as having said that he would rise again : "He 
is not here; for he is risen, as he said" (Matt. 28:6). There is 
no denying the fact that Jesus did predict that he would rise 
from the dead on the third day ; either he did it, or he was a 
false prophet. 

(3) A large number of competent and credible witnesses 
testified to the fact of the resurrection of Christ ; either he did 
rise, or all these witnesses are falsified — either on account of their 
incompetency or on account of their immorality. Certain women, 
among them "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary" (Matt. 28: 
1, 9, 10) ; the eleven apostles who knew him well, and associated 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 259 

with him forty days after the resurrection, "to whom also he 
showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, 
being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things per- 
taining to the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3); five hundred breth- 
ren at the same time (1 Cor. 15:6) ; Paul, to whom he made a 
special manifestation of himself after his resurrection as "of one 
born out of due time" (1 Cor. 15 :8) ; the angel who had shaken 
the earth and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the se- 
pulchre on the night of his resurrection (Matt. 28:6) ; these all 
testified to the fact of the resurrection of Christ. Either he 
rose from the dead, or two women, eleven apostles, five hundred 
Christians, Paul and the angel all gave in false testimony on 
the subject, either because they did not know any better or, 
knowing better, deliberately lied. 

(4) Circumstantial evidence is sometimes more convincing 
than the direct testimony of witnesses, for the reason that it is 
impossible for circumstances to lie. But in the case of the 
resurrection of Christ from the dead the circumstances corrobo- 
rate, and powerfully support, the prophecy of the Old Testament, 
the prophecy of Christ himself and the testimony of above five 
hundred and fifteen witnesses. The Jewish ecclesiastics had com- 
passed the crucifixion of Christ as the only effective mode of 
removing him out of their way and delivering the people from 
the spell of his influence; he was their destructive critic, and the 
Jewish ecclesiastics secured his death as the only effective way 
of silencing him and retaining their power and influence. Amid 
the exciting scenes of the crucifixion of this prominent and well 
known person near the city of Jerusalem these enemies remem- 
bered that he had prophesied that he would rise from the dead, 
and they are well aware that, if the story gets current that he 
did rise from the dead, his hold upon the confidence and disciple- 
ship of his followers would be stronger than it was prior to the 
crucifixion ; and their whole scheme would be completely thwarted. 
So they take all careful and necessary precautions to prevent 
the possibility of any such report getting abroad. They saw the 
sepulchre sealed up with a stone; and then obtained from the 



260 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

governor a guard of Roman soldiers to stand by the tomb and 
see that the body of the Redeemer was not disturbed. 

At the crucifixion nothing was so pitifully weak, so ab- 
jectly dispirited, so completely disappointed and filled with 
chagrin and despair, as were his disciples. They all forsook him 
and fled, feeling that they had been deluded, played upon and 
brought into ridicule, and to the verge of serious hurt ; no person 
believed less in the resurrection of Christ at the moment of his 
crucifixion than did his disciples. They all had abandoned his 
cause and turned away to making a livelihood, thoroughly satis- 
fied that they had been but dupes in following him. There was 
no heart nor spirit left in these men ; they had surrendered in 
despair. 

But on the morning of the third day, and during the days 
immediately ensuing, the report is bruited abroad that the grave 
of Joseph of Arimathea, in which Christ had been laid, was 
empty and that he had actually risen from the dead. How ought 
such a report to have affected the ecclesiastics who were so 
deeply interested in putting him to death and in keeping him in 
the grave? How would it have naturally affected the dis- 
ciples who had suffered such an awful collapse of faith in him? 
Every interest of the ecclesiastics called upon them to exert 
themselves to disprove the rumour ; while the natural effect of 
the story upon his disciples would be to enhearten them and 
tempt them back to a leadership they had so summarily re- 
nounced. The grave was empty on Sunday morning; there is 
not a scrap of testimony to the contrary ; all Jerusalem and ene- 
mies and friends could go to it and see for themselves. Then 
where was the body? 

There are but three possible answers to this question : (a) 
it was in the hands of his enemies; (b) or it was in the hands of 
his friends ; (c) or it had risen from the dead. 

(a) If it was in the hands of his enemies why did they 
not produce the body and make a public exhibit of it on the 
streets of Jerusalem and thus effectively extinguish the rumour 
for ever? The Jewish ecclesiastics had every motive for pur- 
suing such a course, on the supposition that the body was in 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 261 

their custody ; and they had taken every precaution, even to se- 
curing a military guard, that it might be in their keeping on 
the third day; but they did not even profess that they had it in 
charge, or knew where it was, but, on the contrary, gave it out 
that it had been stolen from them. Then the body of Christ 
was not, confessedly, in the hands of his opponents on Sunday 
morning; they had somehow, by their own admission, lost con- 
trol of it. 

(b) Then was the body of Christ Sunday morning in the 
hands of his friends and disciples ? So the Jews alleged : "Some 
of the watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief priests 
all the things that were done. And when they were assembled 
with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money 
unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, 
and stole him away while we slept. . . . And this saying 
is commonly reported among the Jews until this day" (Matt. 
28:11-15). This Roman guard did not report to the chief 
priests that it had fallen asleep ; the story of their going to sleep 
was invented after the Jews had "taken counsel," and the guard 
was given "large money." It was antecedently improbable that 
all the members of the guard would fall to sleep at the same 
time ; it was highly unlikely that any member of the guard could 
fall asleep in a graveyard after the exciting scenes of the day 
before incident upon the crucifixion of the person whose corpse 
they were set to watch ; it was still more improbable that any 
member of that guard slept when the earthquake that very night 
rolled away the stone at the mouth of the sepulchre ; it is still 
more improbable that this entire guard fell asleep that night so 
soundly that the disciples could come and roll away a great stone 
and carry off the corpse without awaking any of them ; it is 
again highly improbable that the whole guard fell asleep when 
the Roman military law affixed death as the penalty for falling 
asleep on duty; and there is nothing to indicate that these men 
had been subject to such exhausting military duty as to render 
nature unable to stand the watch. The whole story is improba- 
ble and far-fetched from any point of view. 



262 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

But granted that the guard fell asleep as they subsequently 
alleged ; how did the disciples pluck up the spirit to go and steal 
the body? They had turned away from the cross in such a 
subjective state of mind as to render it well-nigh impossible for 
them to steal the body, assuming that they had an easy chance. 
What did they want with the corpse? What service could the 
dead body be to them? They were disappointed; they had ex- 
pected him to set up a worldly kingdom which would be highly 
beneficial to them; when he so ignominiously and helplessly died 
on the cross they had every hope that had heretofore swelled 
their bosoms dashed to the ground ; they felt duped and foolish ; 
what motive could they have for stealing the corpse? The last 
we saw of these disciples they had had enough of this Jesus of 
Nazareth and turned to their respective vocations, glad to escape 
from sharing his fate and now concerned only with the hard 
question of making a living for themselves. It is preposterous 
to suppose that these men had such a summersault of feeling 
within less than forty-eight hours as to encourage them to re- 
turn to the sepulchre to filch the Redeemer's body with the scheme 
of propagating a great religion well elaborated in their minds. 
The mental state of the disciples absolutely forbids the very 
hypothesis that they stole the body Saturday night while the 
guard slept. 

But assuming that the body was in the hands of the dis- 
ciples by theft as was alleged by the Jews, how can we account 
for their continued discipleship of Christ? They now know 
that he is an imposter and a fraud. They knew he had said that 
he would rise from the dead; they now know that he did not 
rise from, the dead, for they know that his body is in their pos- 
session; whatever others may imagine, they know that he was 
but a pretender. If what happened on Golgotha on Friday dis- 
couraged them until they forsook him, how much more must 
they have been discouraged and repelled from him by the- con- 
sciousness of the fact that his dead body is now and here in 
their hands? Anything approximating a correct psychology de- 
mands that we think of the disciples as really believing that 
Christ rose from the dead; however explained, it is impossible 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 263 

not to believe that the disciples were sincere in accepting the 
rumour that he had risen from the grave. The body could not 
have been in their possession ; they did not know where it was. 

(c) The only other possible answer to the question, Where 
was the body of Christ on Sunday morning? is that it had risen 
from the grave. 

(5) To the witness of prophecy, to the witness of Christ, 
to the witness of contemporaries, to the witness of circumstances, 
add the witness of certain phenomena of today, and the argu- 
ment for the resurrection of Christ is complete and conclusive. 
Every effect must have an adequate cause; there are four effects 
which can be rationally explained only by assuming the resur- 
rection of Christ as their cause. 

(a) The Christian Church is an institution in the world. 
When we take the back-track and seek for the historical cause of 
its origin, we are carried back to the resurrection of the Re- 
deemer. No man can account for this institution except by pre- 
dicating this as its historic cause. Down the centuries it has 
come, bringing with it the story of the resurrection, not only as 
its report but also as the very cause of its being. 

(b) Similarly, here is a very peculiar institution that has 
somehow come into being and established itself in the world, 
namely, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In our quest for 
its historic origin we are carried back to the crucifixion and 
resurrection of Christ, and this institution becomes a monument 
of this event, marking it as a fact as certainly as a Confederate 
monument proves that there was a Civil War in the United 
States. 

(c) There is another institution which demands a similar 
explanation, namely, the Sabbath Day. For four thousand years 
the Sabbath fell on the last day of the week; but somehow it 
has come to be the first day of the week: How can we account 
for it? The alleged historical cause of the change was the resur- 
rection of Christ ; if that be not the true explanation, then what 
did cause the change? 

(d) Then there is the fact that the world has come to note 
time differently from what was once the custom in this matter. 



264 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

For four thousand years time was marked as "B. C." (Before 
Christ) ; but since his resurrection it is marked as "A. D." (Anno 
Domini). Something tremendous is responsible for altering the 
world's calendar. The burden of proof is on the man who denies 
the resurrection of Christ. 

(6) But no argument can be fairly regarded as complete 
until the reverse side of the question in debate has been exam- 
ined; for it is always abstractly possible that the truth may be 
on the other side until it has been adequately searched and the 
contrary reasonably shown. Those who reject the fact of the 
resurrection of Christ have done so along three general lines. 

(a) The most radical attempt to void the fact of Christ's 
resurrection is made by an assault upon the gospel narratives. 
We are told that the very documents which contain the story 
are fictitious and legendary and we cannot therefore depend upon 
what they say. But the attempt to deny the historicalness of 
these gospel narratives has ever proved a failure, and their his- 
toricity has won general acceptance at the bar of criticism. This 
is, consequently, the lamest and most unacceptable counter-propo- 
sition of all those which a carping world has to make in lieu of 
the teachings of Scripture. It may attract the ignorant peasant, 
but it finds no acceptance with any creditable scholarship even in 
these modern critical times. 

(b) Then there are those unbelievers in the resurrection of 
our Lord who admit the historical nature of the gospel narra- 
tives but take the ground that the Redeemer did not truly and 
really die on the cross ; his death was apparent ; he swooned on 
the cross ; he revived in the grave and somehow got out and 
made his escape. This is not only clumsy, but it is childish ; for 
how could a body as badly damaged as was his get out of the 
grave, elude the guard and make his escape? The very suppo- 
sition is preposterous; and there are few bold enough and des- 
perate enough to hold it. 

(c) The most plausible and popular theory for denying the 
reality of the resurrection of Jesus is known as "the visionary 
theory." The story of his resurrection from the grave origi- 
nated in the hallucination of a woman; she told the story in her 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 265 

nervous hysteria ; other disciples, being in a proper psychological 
frame to take it up, received it; and retold it, until they truly 
and sincerely came to believe it ; and so it passed down the cen- 
turies, as rumours generally go, and grow as they go, striking 
deeper into the minds of susceptible temperaments, until the 
imaginary vision, purely subjective to start with, finally intrenched 
itself in the faith of sound and balanced men. That is, Jesus 
really rose only in the excited imaginations of his early disciples, 
who had a genuine admiration for his character and an affec- 
tionate attachment to his person ; their devotion and love trans- 
formed the imagination into a genuine and sincere belief ; and 
they eventually wrote it down and transmitted it to posterity 
with all honesty of conviction; and so the story got lodged in 
the mind of the world. But this is a purely speculative hypo- 
thesis without a scrap of historical evidence to support it, and is 
attractive only to those minds which have antecedently decided 
against the possibility of any supernatural phenomena being true. 

IV. Ascension. — This is the second step in the exaltation 
of the Redeemer. This event took place forty days after his 
resurrection, from the Mount of Olives, near the village of Beth- 
any, in the presence of the eleven apostles and possibly other 
disciples and "two men in white apparel," conjectured to have 
been Moses and Elijah, while he was in the act of blessing the 
company and while they were looking steadfastly upon him. 
"And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up 
his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass while he 
blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into 
heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem 
with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and 
blessing God" (Luke 24:50-53). "And when he had spoken 
these things, while they beheld, he was taken up ; and a cloud 
received him out of their sight. And while they looked stead- 
fastly towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by 
them in white apparel" (Acts 1 :g, 10). 

"Christ was exalted in his ascension, in that having, after 
his resurrection, often appeared unto, and conversed with his 
apostles, speaking to them of the things pertaining to the king- 



266 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

dom of God, and giving them commission to preach the gospel 
to all nations ; forty days after his resurrection, he, in our nature, 
and as our head, visibly went up into the highest heavens, there 
to receive gifts for men, to raise up our affections thither, and 
to prepare a place for us, where himself is, and shall continue 
till his second coming at the end of the world." 

V. Session. — Passing into the heavens, the Redeemer, in 
his theanthropic nature, publicly assumed his mediatorial crown 
and throne and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on 
High. The Scriptures must tell us the story of his coronation 
in their own language. 

"The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my righr hand, 
until I make thine enemies thy footstool" (Ps. 110:1). "So then, 
after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into 
heaven, and sat on the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19). "It 
is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even 
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" 
(Rom. 8:34). "God raised him from the dead, and set him at 
his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all princi- 
pality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that 
is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to 
come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to 
be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the 
fulness of him that nlleth all in all" (Eph. 1:20-23). "Christ 
sitteth on the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). God "hath in 
these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed 
heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds ; who being 
the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his per- 
son, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when 
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand 
of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3). Christ "is gone into 
heaven, and is on the right hand of God ; angels and authorities 
and powers being made subject unto him" (1 Pet. 3:22). 

SEATED ON THAT MEDIATORIAL THRONE, HE 
EXERCISES ROYAL PREROGATIVES IN DISPENSING, 
THROUGH HIS SPIRIT, THAT SALVATION WHICH HE 
REVEALED AS A PROPHET AND EFFECTUATED AS 
A PRIEST IN THE DAYS OF HIS HUMILIATION. 



PART II. 

Salvation as an Experience 

Chapter 

XXL Introduction 269 

XXII. Vocation 274 

XXIII. Grace 277 

XXIV. Regeneration 293 

XXV. Conversion 326 

XXVI. Saving Faith 330 

XXVII. Justification 359 

XXVIII. Adoption 391 

XXIX. "Good Works" in a Scheme of Grace 406 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Introduction 

Offices of the Trinity in Redemption. — There are three 
persons in the Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the Holy- 
Ghost; and these three persons are the same in their substance, 
equal in their power and glory, and subordinate only in the mode 
of their subsistence and operation. In the economy of redemp- 
tion, each of these Trinitarian persons have a distinctive saving 
office to exercise, and the praises of salvation are to be ascribed 
co-ordinately and co-equally to the Father and to the Son and 
to the Holy Ghost. Broadly speaking, it is the office of the First 
Person in the Godhead (the Father) to draw the plan of salva- 
tion, after the analogy of an architect who draws the "design" 
of a building, and convey to sinful men and women the right 
and title of occupancy of this "house of many mansions." In 
Presbyterian soteriology, the technical term for the saving work 
of the Father is Election. Then it is the economic office of the 
Second Person (the Son) to take that plan and execute it, like 
a contractor who takes the design from the hand of the archi- 
tect and erects the house according to specifications — to build this 
"house of many mansions." The technical term for the saving 
work of Christ is compendiously Atonement. Then it is the 
economic office of the Third Person (the Holy Ghost) to ap- 
ply the redemption designed by the First, and executed by the 
Second, to sinful men and women, originating and developing 
a Christian Experience, like one who actually moves the tenants 
into the "house of many mansions," and domiciliates them in their 
new residence. The theological technicality for this work of the 
Spirit is Vocation. Election by the Father, Atonement by the 
Son, Vocation by the Spirit — these are the Trinitarian parts of 
human Redemption, and each is essential to the whole, and each 
in the order given. 



270 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Effects — The effect of Election is to give the sinner a 
right and title to all privileges and blessings of Heaven. The 
effect of Atonement is to open the door of Heaven to guilty men 
and women — a means to salvation as an end. The effect of 
Vocation is the conversion of sinful men and women — the sub- 
jective preparation of them for the holy life of Heaven. While 
these three topics — Election, Atonement and Vocation — are ex- 
pounded separately in soteriology, they are each necessary parts 
of the integral whole of Redemption. 

Work of Christ. — In the Christian Faith, there are four 
grand heads in the saving work of Christ, treated under the cap- 
tions of Incarnation, Prophet, Priest, King. The chief end of the 
Incarnation was to qualify Christ to personally exercise the media- 
torial offices of Prophet, Priest and King. The central product 
of his Prophetical (revealing) office was the Gospel, of his 
Priestly (ruling) office was Conversion, or setting up his king- 
dom and reign in the hearts and lives of men and women. All 
four of these things — Incarnation, the Gospel, the Atonement, 
Conversion — are essential items in the complete work of the Re- 
deemer, albeit they are presented successively by the systematic 
theologian. 

Conversion. — Is effected not directly by Christ, but through 
the Holy Spirit as his agent. From the Throne he sends the 
Spirit to begin and perfect a Christian Experience — to set up 
his dominion and kingdom in the hearts and lives of men, and so 
turn the objective title to Heaven, upon the ground of the media- 
torial work of Christ, into a subjective Christian Experience — a 
meetness and fitness of character for a life in Heaven. 

Vocation. — But how does the Spirit do this? By what gen- 
eral mode does he apply that Redemption which was decreed by 
the Father and executed by the Son, to individual sinful men 
and women, so that they actually experience it in life and destiny? 
The answer is by Vocation. "Vocation" is a Latin word, "call- 
ing" is a Greek word, and "preaching" is an Anglo-Saxon word. 
They are synonyms, and mean the same thing. The Spirit sets 
up the reign of Christ in the minds, the hearts, the consciences 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 271 

and wills — originates and perfects a genuine subjective Christian 
Experience — by vocation, or calling, or preaching. In short, the 
Spirit preaches sinful men and women into the kingdom of God, 
the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of Heaven. 

The Ordo Salutis. 

Grace is. a technicality for that power of the Holy Spirit, 
which applies that Redemption which was decreed by the Father 
and wrought by the Son. The ordo salutis is a technical phrase 
in the old Latin theology for the logical steps which grace takes 
in beginning and developing a Christian experience. It under- 
takes to give the successive acts of grace, in the order of pro- 
duction, in changing a sinner into a saint. 

There are three ground-forms of soteriology — the Pelagian, 
the Arminian, and the Augustinian or Calvinistic. Each of these 
has its own distinctive ordo salutis — its own account of the way 
in which a sinful human being becomes a Christian and a bene- 
ficiary of all that Christ has taught and done in this world of ours. 

Pelagian. — (1) Repentance, (2) Obedience. 

According to this schedule, all that is required of a sinful 
man is that he repent, and change his course from one of dis- 
obedience to one of obedience. His acceptance with God is con- 
ditioned altogether upon his character and conduct, and these 
are the products of his own power. Grace furnishes him with 
Christ as an example of correct living, with the Bible as a text- 
book on character and conduct, and with the Church and the 
ministry as good helps to be and to do what he ought to be and 
do. At its most, grace is but a help. In the last instance, the 
sinner must get and apply to himself all the benefits of the ad- 
vent of Christ into this world. In "repentance," the sinner "quits 
his meanness" and reforms his course of living, and in "obedience" 
he conforms himself to that course of life and behaviour which 
is required and commended in the Scriptures. It is salvation by 
destruction and reconstruction. It is the Pelagian, or Rationalistic 
or Ethical or Unitarian, gospel. 



272 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Arminian. — (1) Repentance, (2) Faith, (3) Justification, 
(4) Regeneration, (5) Sanctification, (6) Glorification. 

According to this order, the sinner, to become a beneficiary 
of Christ, must first repent — become sorrowful for his wicked- 
ness and forsake his evil ways. Then, in the second place, he 
must accept Christ by faith, and commit his soul to his Saviour 
for salvation. When he has taken these two steps, then, in the 
third place, he is justified by God, and set free from all his 
guilt, and reinstated in the divine favour. When these three 
things have been done, and conditioned upon them, then in the 
fourth place, he is regenerated, and made a new creature in Christ 
Jesus, and restored to sonship in the family of God. Then comes 
the work of sanctification, by which he eliminates the remnants 
of inbred sin, by a life of evangelical obedience, or "falls from 
grace" by lapsing into disobedience, and so takes himself back 
into the apostate condition from which he first began to re- 
cover himself, and so has the whole process to do over again 
ab initio. If, however, he perseveres in evangelical obedience, 
and carries on his gracious culture to the very end of life and 
opportunity, he will be finally glorified. In it all grace is a bounti- 
ful and generous helper, but always resistible. It is the gospel 
of mere sufficiency — the love of the Father is sufficient for all 
men, the atonement of Christ is sufficient for all men, and the 
grace of the Spirit is sufficient for all men — but everywhere the 
sinner must himself transform sufficiency into efficiency. The 
most that the Spirit of God does is to help a man repent, be- 
lieve, justify himself, and regenerate himself, and sanctify and 
glorify himself. In the whole process, the sinner is a proba- 
tioner, and his salvation is in jeopardy every hour. If he ever 
relaxes his hold upon God, God will relax his hold upon him. It 
is a gospel of salvation by evangelical obedience. 

Calvinistic. — (1) Regeneration, (2) Faith, (3) Repentance, 
(4) Justification, (5) Adoption, (6) Sanctification, (7) Glorifi- 
cation. - ' 

According to this account regeneration is the first and initial 
act of grace. It is a change of heart which takes place below 
consciousness and is fundamental and causative of all Christian 






Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 273 

life and experience. When regenerated, there are two convert- 
ing acts — faith and repentance. In believing, the regenerated soul 
accepts Christ as a Saviour — changes the foundation and premise 
and reason of life. In repenting, it turns from its evil ways — 
changes the course and end and aim of life. He repents towards 
God and believes towards our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul de- 
scribes it in the Acts of the Apostles. Then the believing and 
penitent soul is justified by God upon the ground of the merits 
of Christ, which are received and presented by faith. Then the 
sinner is adopted into the family and house of God and given a 
legal right and title to all the privileges of the children of God. 
Then begins the work of sanctification, extending over the entire 
life of the sinner on his way from a state in sin to a state in 
grace. It consists of two parts — (1) dying unto sin and (2) 
growth in grace. When this work is completed, the sinful soul 
is "meet for the saints' inheritance in light," and is finally glori- 
fied. In it all, grace is the efficient and sustaining cause. As 
creation is originated and preserved and governed and brought 
to its final destiny by God, so Christian life is regenerated and 
preserved and perfected by divine grace. It is the gospel of 
salvation by grace — from start to finish. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Vocation 

God does every thing by vocation, or calling, or preaching, 
or speaking. It is his universal method. "He speaks, and it is 
done; he commands, and it stands fast." Is it creation? He 
called those things which be out of that which was not (Rom. 
4:17). He said in the beginning, "Let there be light: and there 
was light" (Gen. 1 14). Is it providence? He upholds all things 
"by the word of his power" (Heb. 1 13). Is it the resurrection of 
the dead? "All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and 
shall come forth" (Jno. 5:29). Is it the appointment of a Mes- 
siah and a Saviour? He called his Son to the saving office (Isa. 
6:8). Is it the broad work of redemption? He is "the God of 
all grace, who hath called us unto eternal life by Jesus Christ" 
(1 Pet. 5:10). The biblical reader can hardly prevent himself 
from generalizing that God does all his will by commanding, by 
speaking, by calling, by vocation. Overwhelmingly is this true, 
when we restrict our attention to conversion, and the develop- 
ment of Christian life and experience. 

nated a "calling" (klesis). Heb. 3:1; Eph. 1:8; Eph. 
4:1-2; 2 Tim. 1 :g; 2 Pet. 1 :io; etc. 

2. With great persistency the subjects of redemption are de- 
nominated the "called" (kletoi). Rom. 1:6. 

Vocation. 

Outline : 

Efficacious Cause Holy Spirit. 

Material Cause Bible. - ' 

Instrumental Cause Preaching. 

Formal Cause Sermon. 

Final Cause Conversion. 



Christian Salvation — /fa Doctrine and Experience 275 

The Efficient Cause — the power which translates the Election 
of God and the Atonement of Christ into life and experience — 
is the Holy Spirit. And the power of the Holy Spirit in the 
realm of redemption is technically called Grace. This alone can 
prevent the gospel from being a mere theory and convert it into 
a practical religion — a religion that turns the sinner into a saint. 
It is this which supports and makes effective the gospel-call upon 
sinful men and women. 

The Material Cause of Vocation — That which the Spirit of 
God calls into the ear of a sinful world — is the Bible. If the 
Spirit calls, he calls a word, and that word which he utters is the 
Word of God. He is the caller, the sinner is the called and the 
Word is the thing which is called. Hence the Bible, the whole 
Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the; subject-matter of that 
preaching which saves and sanctifies sinful men and women. It 
is by the use of this Gospel Book that^ the Spirit of Grace trans- 
forms sinners into saints and makes the Christian religion a per- 
sonal experience in the lives of men and women. 

The Instrumental Cause in Vocation — That which the Spirit 
of Grace employs as a medium for sounding the Gospel Call into 
the ears of sinful men and women — is the Church and its min- 
istry. Preaching, in the broad sense for any thing whereby the 
Gospel is presented to people, is the great tool which the Spirit 
of God employs to save and sanctify sinful men. Preaching does 
not convert ex op ere operato — by virtue of any power inherent 
in it — but only as it is blessed of Christ, and made effective by the 
Holy Spirit. It is the forces of nature which make the farmer's 
crop grow and fructify, but it is the plowing and the hoeing and 
the cultivation which are the instrumental conditions necessary 
to the result. So with Grace and preaching. The Church is a 
preaching institute — the agency of the Spirit whereby he brings 
the Word of life into contact with the minds and hearts and con- 
sciences and wills of men and persuades and enables them to 
embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to them in the Gospel. This 
is its distinct and valuable office. It is the trumpet through which 
the Spirit of God calls men from darkness to light. If not always 
through the Word as preached or read or in some manner brought 



2j6 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

into contact with the spirits of men, it is never without the Word 
that they are converted. 

The Formal Cause of Vocation — that which is distinctive and 
peculiar to it, the specific shape which it takes — is, par excellence, 
the sermon. It may be the formal sermon of the ordinary minis- 
ter as heard or read, or the informal sermon of the Sunday School 
teacher and Christian worker of every kind — of whosoever hear- 
eth or howsoever delivered. The Word of God as called by the 
Spirit through the Church and her ministry takes the distinctive 
form of a sermon. And the varieties of the sermon are multi- 
tudinous. 

The Final Cause of Vocation — the object of the Spirit in 
calling the Word into the ears of sinful men and women through 
the Church and her ministry in some form of the sermon — is con- 
version. This is the purpose, the object, the aim, the teleology 
of it all. Conversion is sometimes used in a broad sense and 
sometimes in a narrow sense. In the broad sense, it signifies all 
that process whereby grace makes a sinner into a saint, but in its 
narrow sense it is used to signify the initial act of grace in 
beginning a Christian experience. In its narrow sense it is a 
synonym for regeneration, but in its broad sense it includes re- 
generation, justification, adoption, sanctification, evangelical 
obedience and every thing from the beginning of grace to its con- 
summation in heavenly glory. When it is here described as the 
object of Vocation, it is emplyed in this larger sense, and the 
meaning is that it is by Vocation that the Spirit of God completes 
the work of grace in the sinful soul by its final Glorification. 
From start to finish redemption is carried on and through 
Vocation — by the Calling of the Spirit of God, and in no other 
manner. The soul never reaches any stage, or comes into any 
condition, when the Spirit of God throws away the Word and 
resorts to some mystical and direct dealing. From Grace to 
Glory — he calls. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Grace 

Grace is the most precious word in the Christian vocabulary. 
There is not a more dynamic word in all the theology of redemp- 
tion. Of it the Christian sings ; in it he hopes ; for it he prays ; 
upon it he depends. He contrasts the religion of Law and the 
religion of Grace ; he divides the scheme of salvation into the 
Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. Out of the one 
issues death and hell, and out of the other comes life and heaven. 
Every Christian is in full sympathy with Paul, when the great 
apostle exclaimed, "By grace I am what I am." The saints in 
glory, around the great white throne, shout, "Grace, Grace." 
What, then, is Grace? 

In the Christian Scriptures it is used in three senses : ( i ) as 
an attribute, (2) as a power, (3) as an effect. It is the same idea 
described from three different points of view. As an attribute, 
it signifies that trait in the heart of God from which proceeds the 
whole programme for the redemption of sinful men — the fountain 
from which issues the saving stream. ("Who hath saved us, and 
called us with an holy calling, according to his own purpose and 
grace." 2 Tim. 1 :g). As a power, Grace is a technicality for that 
force or energy which makes the plan of salvation efficient in the 
life and conscious experience of sinful men. ("My grace is suf- 
ficient for thee." 2 Cor. 12:9). The meaning here is not that 
the kind feeling and sympathy which God entertained for his 
servant would be sufficient to enable him to bear the thorn which 
was piercing heart and flesh, but that a divine power would sus- 
tain him from within in all his affliction for the cross. As an 
effect, Grace stands for some change wrought in the state and 
life of its subjects. "Faith," "Hope," "Charity," are celebrated 
as the three queenliest "graces" of the Christian Religion. There 
is not a single blessing of salvation mentioned in all the Scrip- 
tures which is not referred to Grace as the efficient and produc- 
ing cause. 



278 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

If we take the goodness of God as his generic attitude of 
heart toward the human world, there are several special varieties 
of it. Benevolence is his goodness terminating upon sentient 
beings. Love is his goodness terminating upon rational and per- 
sonal beings. Mercy is his goodness terminating upon miserable 
beings. Grace is his goodness terminating upon sinful beings. 
Every book needs a preface to introduce it to the reader. Every 
artist needs a background to give relief to his sketches. Every 
jewel needs a setting to bring out its beauty and accentuate its 
flashes of loveliness. So Grace needs its preface, its background, 
its setting ; and that is human sinfulness. He who is not a sinner 
is not a proper subject of Grace. 

But when sinfulness is analyzed, as a chemist analyzes 
water, its two constituent elements are found to be Guilt and 
Pollution. The one is objective, and the other is subjective. 
The one affects man's status, and the other his character. The 
one makes him punishable, and the other makes him offensive. 
The one makes him obnoxious to the justice of God, and the 
other makes him obnoxious to the holiness of God. Grace, to be 
effective, must provide for cleansing away both : it must remove 
the guilt of sin and give man a new status before God ; it must 
clean away the stain of sin and give him a new nature. The task 
of Grace is to give the sinner, at once, both a new status and a 
new heart. Such a double change cannot be accomplished by 
kindness, nor by love, nor by mercy : it can be done only by Grace. 

Speaking in broadest outline, it was the office of God the 
Father to draw the Plan of Salvation ; it was the office of God 
the Son to take that Plan and execute it by his incarnation, life 
and death — make it an historic fact ; and it was the office of God 
the Spirit to apply that Plan as conceived by the Father and exe- 
cuted by the Son, and develop a Christian Experience. The 
architect designs the house; the contractor builds it as designed; 
the man who runs the moving car moves the family into the house 
as designed by the architect and erected by the contractor. The 
Father is the architect of the house of redemption ; the Son is 
the contractor ; and the Spirit finds God's people, and domiciliates 
them in the house of salvation. The Plan originated in the Grace 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 279 

of the Father, was executed by the Grace of the Son and is ap- 
plied by the Grace of the Spirit. So that the sinner is a debtor 
co-ordinately and co-equally to the Grace of the Triune God, and 
owes the praises of his redemption equally to Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost. 

In theology Grace is prevailingly used as a technicality for 
that power which makes the Christian Religion effective in the 
earth. The physicist speaks of "Gravity," "electricity," and 
other "forces of nature" by which he seeks to explain the phe- 
nomena of the world. The force, the power, of the Christian 
theologian, by which he seeks to explain all Christian phenomena 
is technically called "grace." 

In this day when the physical sciences have made us all fa- 
miliar with "force" and "power" and "second causes," the 
preacher and the theologian have fallen into the common custom, 
and are calling Grace "spiritual power." But I do not think this is 
happy. (1) Because "spiritual" is vague and ambiguous. In 
philosophy, it is the immaterial, as in the contrast, matter and 
spirit. In psychology, it is the mental, as in the contrast, body 
and mind. In literature and art, it is the aesthetic, as in the con- 
trast, the real and the ideal. In religion, when properly used, the 
word "spiritual" is an adjective with the Holy Spirit as its noun. 
"Spiritual power" then, would be synonymous with the power and 
influence of the Holy Spirit of God in the realm of religion; 
"spiritual life," the life of which the Holy Spirit is the author 
and sustainer; "spiritual phenomena," the phenomena of which 
the Holy Spirit is the cause and producer; "spiritual mind," the 
mind whose temper and disposition, thoughts and motives, ideals 
and visions, are products of the Holy Spirit; and "spirituality," 
that abstract state which results from the gracious operations of 
the Holy Spirit. When so understood, Grace is "spiritual power" ; 
but we must always bq cautious lest our hearer or reader, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, get the idea that Grace is just a gen- 
eral "religious force," as gravity is a "physical force." There is 
always a danger here, that the religionist must ever watch against, 
or he will misrepresent and injure his cause. (2) Then I think 
"grace" is a better term than "spiritual power," because it is a dis- 



280 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

tinctive and definite technicality. Every science must have its 
nomenclature, its technical terms. The natural sciences all coin 
such terms as "gravity," "electricity," "wind," "water," etc., all 
proper names for the specific causes and powers of the facts 
whose explanations are sought. In an analogous manner, it is 
far more satisfactory for religion to have proper and exclusive 
technicality for the power which operates in its distinctive sphere. 
That biblical and traditional technicality is "grace." Our science 
and our cause will be altogether the gainer if we persistently pre- 
serve it, and familiarize the public with it by insistently using 
it. So would every man be compelled to go to the Christian Scrip- 
tures to learn the meaning of the word, and find out the nature 
and attributes of this peculiar sort of power. 

i. Grace is power. It is not merely a trait of the character 
of God : it is that trait as an energy, a force. It is not simply a 
well-head in the heart of God : it is a mighty stream flowing from 
that fountain. It is "the exceeding greatness of his power to 
usward who believe" (Eph. 1:19). It is the power which saves 
and sanctifies the sinful soul. 

2. It is spiritual power. The power of the Holy Spirit of 
God in the realm of redemption. The Christian Scriptures 
everywhere represent the Holy Spirit as the efficient in the Chris- 
tian Religion ; and they also represent Grace as the cause of all 
saving benefits : these two ideas are put together in the biblical 
phrase, "the Spirit of Grace" (Heb. 10:29). Spirit is the per- 
son, and Grace is the power. So the Spirit is the author of all 
religious life by his Grace. 

3. Grace is personal power. It is not an impersonal and ab- 
stract force, like gravity or electricity. It is free, voluntary 
power, the power of will, the power of the will of the Holy Spirit. 
It cannot, consequently, be harnessed and geared and transmitted 
like the impersonal forces of nature, such as steam, and wind and 
water. It is sovereign, and operates like a person, by free will and 
choice and self-determination. This is the consummate blunder 
in all the rationalistic interpretations of the Christian Religion. 
They treat Grace as if it were one of the forces of nature, sub- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 281 

ject to laws and rules. Grace is the power of a person, the Third 
Person in the Godhead. 

4. Grace is supernatural power. It does not belong to the 
list of "second causes." Drummond's attempt, in his Natural 
Law in the Scriptural World, to wipe out the distinction between 
the natural and the supernatural, was an effort to classify Grace 
among the natural forces in the world, and interpret all religious 
experience as the evolution of this religious force. Had it been 
successful the Christian Religion would have been destroyed as 
something peculiar and distinctive in the earth and it would have 
been co-ordinated with all other religions and explained as a 
mere evolution of the religious instinct of the race. That experi- 
ence which does not recognize the supernatural power of Grace, 
as the power of that intelligent, voluntary agent, the Holy Spirit, 
falls far short of the Scriptures and naturalizes the Christian 
Religion. 

What is the method of Grace? How does it operate? What 
is its manner and means of doing its work ? This is a question of 
fundamental importance both for doctrine and practice. 

The nature of the power must determine the manner of its 
use. The electrician must adapt his appliances to the nature of 
the power he proposes to employ. The mechanician would be 
ridiculous who would "rig up" a wind mill for steam, or make a 
steam-engine to be operated by wind. Power must be geared and 
harnessed according to its nature, in order for it to be serviceable. 
Grace is no exception to this rule of common sense: it must be 
transmitted according to its own intrinsic and essential nature. 

Grace is the free, sovereign, voluntary, personal power of the 
Holy Spirit. To attempt to use it as if it were an impersonal, 
mechanical force, albeit you call it religious or spiritual, would 
be equal to the attempt to use a free agent as if he were a mindless, 
thoughtless, heartless, involuntary thing. It would be just as ab- 
surd as trying to make a horse grow in the ground as does a tree. 
The Spirit is a person, and his "grace" is his personal power, and 
cannot be machineized. 

Here is the supreme fallacy of all Pelagians, Socinians, Uni- 
tarians, Rationalists, and Naturalists of every name and variety 



282 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

in religion : they interpret Grace as a religious force, and endeavor 
to apply it by mechanisms suitable to only impersonal physical 
forces. God has given men their faculties, sufficient for all that 
he requires of them; he has given them a gospel, an excellent 
text-book on the subject of religion; he has sent his Son into the 
world to show men how to live and illustrate before them the 
proper character and course of conduct, he has established the 
church and all the institutions of the Christian Religion as ade- 
quate means and helps for right living. In it all there is nothing 
supernatural. In the origination and development of a Christian 
experience every thing is just as natural as the education of an 
ignorant man in the secular sciences, just as natural as the 
gardener's growing of cabbages and carrots. Grace is simply a re- 
ligious influence, a spiritual force the same in kind with the mental 
and vital forces with which we are familiar. All religious life 
depends upon heredity, environment, and culture : the desideratum 
is but an efficient personal and social program. 

How then is Grace transmitted to the production of any 
effect? The Bible answers. It is by Vocation. Calling is Greek, 
vocation is Latin, preaching is the popular translation of both. 
Grace becomes effective through preaching, using the word in its 
widest sense for any mode of bringing the mind of the sinner 
into contact with the truth of the gospel. Sinners are converted 
into saints like Republicans are converted into Democrats, by 
preaching; except that in evangelical preaching the power which 
makes the gospel effective is not moral suasion, but the spiritual 
persuasion of the Holy Ghost. The efficacy of Grace is via 
preaching. Any other method renders it nugatory, because it 
violates the very nature of the converting power. This also shows 
us how silly it is to attempt to correct the sinfulness of the world 
by substitutes for preaching. 

Ezekiel was told to prophesy (preach) to the dry bones 
which filled the Valley of Vision. He did not refuse on the 
ground that it was absurd and would make him ridiculous. He 
obeyed, and the Valley became filled with living men. Our 
Lord stood by the grave of Lazarus, four days dead, and preached, 
and the dead man came forth under the plenipotent call of the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 283 

Redeemer. The Apostles went everywhere preaching, and all 
that has been accomplished for the cause of Christ in the world 
has been the product of preaching. Paul has generalized the 
statement that "it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching 
to save them that believe" (1 Cor. 1 :2i). Then he drew out the 
doctrine in a splendid series of connected propositions : "Whoso- 
ever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How 
then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and 
how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and 
how shall they hear without a preacher? ... So then faith 
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10: 
13-17). "Calling" is in order to "salvation," "believing" is in 
order to "calling," "hearing" is in order to "believing," "preach- 
ing" is in order to "hearing," and "sending" is in order to 
"preaching." Grace then is transmissible only through "preach- 
ing." 

But it is not any and every sort of preaching that Grace 
will thus honor and make effective. It is a peculiar and distinctive 
form of preaching — that which holds forth the word of God, 
which centralizes upon Christ. The Bible is the impersonal Word 
of God ; Christ is the Personal Word of God. They come to the 
same thing. Translate the Bible into a Person, and that Person 
is Christ; translate Christ into a Book, and that Book is the 
Bible. 

Christ is the topic, the "subject," of the whole Bible, from 
Genesis to Revelation — Christ, not as an interesting character in 
the world's history, but Christ as the Saviour of sinners. This is 
precisely the doctrine of our Lord himself, "Search the Scrip- 
tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are 
they which testify of me" (Jno. 5:39). In all the promises to 
Abraham, Moses and David ; in all the emblems and types of 
the elaborate ceremonial system; in all the gorgeous predictions 
of Isaiah and the other prophets ; Jesus the Messiah is everywhere 
the theme. Was it the protevangelium, which flamed like a morn- 
ing star upon the brow of that night which had settled down 
upon the world of sin and sorrow? Christ was that "seed." Was 
it the rainbow that arched the sky after that deluge on whose 



284 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

wild waste of waters floated the carcasses of a disobedient world? 
Christ was that bow of promise, that pledge of future security. 
Was it a childless patriarch who left his native land a pilgrim 
and a stranger in all the earth, who was promised all that was 
bounded by the horizon, and a seed in whom all nations should 
be blessed ? Christ was that promised seed. Was it Moses amid 
the grumblings of Sinai and the awful flashes of moral law? He 
himself was a type of that Mediator who was to satisfy that 
law in his own atoning death. Was it the place of Jehovah's 
worship which stank with the blood of sacrificial victims? It 
was but the emblem of the saving crimson which was to pour 
down Calvary's slopes. Was it the sweet singer of Israel, wak- 
ing the melodies of his harp and filling all the air with the music 
of his chords? They were but royal lyrics in praise of David's 
coming Lord. Was it Isaiah standing between the gate posts of 
the morning and watching the rising sun hang his splendors on 
the trellis of the sky? He was but proclaiming that daybreak 
when all the angels of God would burst forth from the galleries 
of the sky at the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem. Everywhere 
the face of the Messiah looked out of the windows of the Old 
Testament. In everything his person and work were prefigured. 

It is that preaching which sets forth Christ as he is set forth 
in the Scriptures which has the promise and the hope of the recog- 
nition and blessing of God's Grace by the Holy Spirit. 

The Church is a factory ; Grace is its power ; the Word, 
Sacraments and Prayer are its tools and machinery; preachers 
and workers are its employees ; and Christians are its product or 
output. 

We call the followers of Augustine Augustinians ; of Luther, 
Lutherans ; of Calvin, Calvinists or Calvinians; of Christ, Chris- 
tians. The product of this factory is given different names at 
different stages of the manufacture of Christians. In posse, that 
is in the mind of the Father, as articles to be made, they are the 
elect (eklektoi) ; in the hand of Christ, they are believers (pistoi) ; 
in the hand of the Spirit, to be perfected, they are the called 
(kletoi) ; in heaven as finished and perfected to the satisfaction 
of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they are the saints (hagaoi). 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 285 

The persons are the same ; the designations vary from the differ- 
ent points of view. 

Every manufacturer has two objects in view, at which he 
aims, and can never be content until they are attained : ( 1 ) the 
serviceableness of his article, and (2) the beauty of his product. 
Indeed the useful and the ornamental, the serviceable and the 
beautiful, are the twin objects of human aspiration, and utilita- 
rianism and aestheticism are the attractive philosophies of human 
life. At the bottom of a woman's soul is the love of the beautiful ; 
at the center of a man's heart is the love of the useful, and man 
and woman are the complementary halves of the human race. 
God made man in his own image, and he too loves the useful 
and the beautiful. It is the task of divine grace to take the 
worthless sinner and make out of him a useful servant of God 
who shall satisfy His love of the useful and an ornamental char- 
acter which shall satisfy His love of the beautiful. 

1. The first purpose of a Christian is to be useful, service- 
able — "laborers together with God" (1 Cor. 3:9). Grace gives 
him the right to work, and the heart to work. Like his Lord, it 
must be "his meat and drink to do the will of his Master." The 
Saviour's curse fell upon a fig tree, and that because it bore 
"nothing but leaves only." Grace is promised that the Christian 
"be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord 
Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 1:8). 

What is the office of good works in a scheme of salva- 
tion by Grace ? Why should a man work for that which 
cannot be obtained by labor, but which can be had only as a 
bounty? Character and conduct are not the grounds of justi- 
fication, nor are they the causes of sanctification, nor do they 
earn heavenly glorification ; but they do condition one's stand- 
ing in the approbation and praise of his God and Judge. There 
are but two motives why any man should work: (1) neces- 
sity, (2) ambition. Some toil simply and solely because they 
are obliged to do so ; meat and bread and the necessaries of 
life are dependent upon the labor of their hands. Others 
labor because they are ambitious to own and heap up wealth 
and possessions. They are not forced by necessity from with- 



286 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

out, but by a spirit from within. God has never forbidden any 
man either to aspire or to acquire. He has doomed no man 
to run with jackals or to dwell with the bats and owls. It is 
every man's privilege to spread eagle wings and soar to the 
empyrean. The backward peoples on the earth are those who 
strive from sheer necessity; the forward peoples are those 
who have been ambitious and acquisitive. Those at the bot- 
tom of society are the thriftless, who are in the main content 
with the bare necessaries of life; those at the top have been 
irrepressible and mounting spirits, who cannot be content with 
cramped conditions and meager supplies. The Christian 
worker in God's vineyard — he cannot earn his redemption by 
the labor of his hands ; that he receives as the gratuity of 
grace. With these gracious gifts as his capital, as his lever- 
age, he takes pride in climbing higher and higher in his Lord's 
favour and grace. He is moved by gratitude, and swept on 
by a grace-born ambition to be a workman that needs not to 
be ashamed. 

There are but four schemes of labor under which a Chris- 
tian can work in the field of his Master: (i) slavery, (2) peon- 
age, (3) contract, (4) free labor. He is not a free laborer, to 
go on a strike at his pleasure. He is not under a contract, which 
binds his heavenly employer to give him his wages and heaven 
as hire. He is not a peon, like a penitentiary convict, expiat- 
ing his debt by the sweat of his brow. He is a slave, whose 
master owns his person, his time, his service and all the pro- 
ducts of his toil. Given an ideal master and ideal slave, and 
slavery is the happiest and most honorable relation which can 
exist between the superior and the inferior. It is the relation 
between the Christian and Christ and is bowed and burgeoned 
with the most blessed rewards and heavenly emoluments. 

That Christian Life may be truly useful to God and the world, 
it must be simple and sincere, honest and transparent, en- 
thusiastic and impulsive, moral and intelligent, instructed and 
imprincipled. 

2. But it is not enough that Christian Life should be 
made sound and ethical, sane and righteous, industrious and 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 287 

productive. It must also be made beautiful. We are not only 
philosophers and moralists and pragmatists ; we are artists 
also. We are answerable not only at the bar of reason and 
conscience, but at the bar of good taste also. Usefulness must 
be clothed with attractiveness. The Scripture calls upon us 
to "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things" (Tit. 
2:10). 

The ornaments of the Christian are the "graces of the 
Spirit/' They are to be set like sparkling gems in Christian 
character and worn like ornaments in Christian conduct. 

Here is a tray of jewels lying upon a mat of royal purple 
in the artificer's shop. The royal diamond, flashing rainbow 
splendors; the translucent opal, over whose polished surface 
elusive tints play hide and seek; the deep green emerald glist- 
ening like a verdant island upon the bosom of a purple sea; 
the blood red ruby, whose colors swirl like a boiling cloud; 
the fiery jasper, swathed in a lambent flame; the azure sap- 
phire, reflecting the tints of a cloudless sky; the deep red 
sardius; the yellow red sardonyx; the golden chrysolite; the 
cerulian beryl; the saffron topaz; the auburn jacinth; the 
apple-green chrysoprasus — all the precious stones with which the 
apocalyptic of God framed the heavenly Jerusalem in his ef- 
fort to set forth the exquisite and entrancing beauty of the 
final home of the saints. Each gem has its individual crystali- 
zation and color-tint, but it is the task of the artificer to set 
them in groups that will satisfy a higher taste and appeal to 
a more complex appetency for beauty and loveliness. 

Now look in this jewel-room of Scripture, at this tray of 
Christian Graces — every one of them a gem which flashes the 
genius and taste of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Grace. "Love, 
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance" (Gal. 5 :22, 23). They all, with others, are character 
gems "of purest ray serene." Grace assembles them, with ex- 
quisite artistic skill, in the life of the Christian so as to form 
that "setting" called "the beauty of holiness." The finished pro- 
duct is fit to hang among the stars in the gallery of Heaven. 



288 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Will Grace finally triumph? Will it complete its task and 
perfect its product? Will its operation be so persistent and ef- 
fective that the Christian can feel assured of success? Are we 
justified in holding the doctrine of "the final perseverance of 
the saints?" 

If Grace is the almighty power of the Spirit ; if its purpose 
is truly serious ; if its means are really effective as instrumentali- 
ties, it would seem that this question could be neither raised nor 
debated. Israel's history is a good illustration of a Christian's 
career and course in grace. Egypt was a type of sin, crossing 
the Red Sea was a type of regeneration, the wandering in the 
wilderness was a type of sanctification ; Jordan was a type of 
death, and Caanan was a type of heaven. However the people 
zig-zagged and doubled back upon their course, they never crossed 
the Red Sea and entered into the land of Egypt. By ways that 
were circuitous and often mystifying, the people ultimately 
reached their destination. So will it be with the Christian. He 
will surely get home bye and bye, when God will stand on the 
steps of his throne and congratulate himself in the apocalyptic 
words, "his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face, 
and his name shall be in their foreheads" (Rev. 22 13, 4). 

But to discredit this delicious hope, three propositions have 
been advanced to throw the whole work of grace into jeopardy 
and uncertainty in its final outcome. 

1. "It is impossible for God to make the believer's 
final salvation absolutely certain without destroying his 
moral free agency ; and if that be destroyed, man is no 
longer man." The possibility of apostacy is essential to 
free agency. 

Is God a free agent? Is his apostacy possible? Are the 
angels which "kept their estate" free agents ? Is their apostacy 
possible ? Are the glorified saints in heaven free agents ? Is their 
apostacy possible? Are those "who are kept by the power of 
God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last 
time" (Phil. 1 :6) free agents? Is their apostacy possible if God 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 289 

is their custodian? A man ought to be careful about asserting 
what is "impossible" for God. There must be something wrong 
with the a priori metaphysics which asserts that God, who can 
create and who can destroy, who can raise the dead and regenerate 
the soul, cannot keep his people from falling, unless he annihilates 
one of the constituent attributes of their natures. 

A free agent is one who does as he pleases — follows the list- 
ings of his own mind and the desires of his own heart. Sup- 
pose the mind is so changed that it always sees accurately ; sup- 
pose the heart is so changed that it always feels truly; suppose 
the conscience is so enlightened that it always judges soundly; 
suppose the will is so altered that it always acts correctly; such 
a man would be a free agent, following the judgments of his own 
accurate mind, the desires of his own true heart, the judgments 
of his own sound conscience, the volitions of his own correct 
will. This is precisely what Grace does in regeneration — alters 
the human soul below consciousness, and the resultant changes 
for ever manifest themselves in consciousness as the free and self- 
determined decisions of the person. And so the "impossible" 
is done, and no one's psychology has been shivered and no man's 
being has been destroyed. Teneor et teneo, I am held and I hold, 
said the dying Girardeau. 

2. "He was free to begin the Christian life or not, 
as he chose ; he is, in the same manner, free to continue 
this life or not, as he may decide." He who began it may 
end it. Man began it, and man can stop it; and some- 
times does stop it. 

As a matter of fact, who "begins" it? Who takes the ini- 
tiative, and starts the Christian life and career? God or man? 
"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation 
of the world" (Eph. 1:4). Who was the elector before the 
foundation of the world? "Ye have not chosen me, but I have 
chosen you, and ordained you" (Jno. 15:16). Who made first 
choice? "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 Jno. 4:19). 
Who was the first and original lover? "He which hath begun a 



290 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" 
(Phil. 1 :6). Who began this good work of making a saint out 
of a sinner? Our objector says he who began the good work 
may end it. But our Scriptures say that he who began it will 
not end it, but will carry it on until the day of Jesus Christ. The 
fallacy of the whole argument is the unbiblical assumption that 
man is the "starter" of a Christian experience and career. The 
doctrine of the Bible is that Grace begins it and that Grace will 
triumphantly perfect it. 

3. "That a regenerate believer may backslide, fall into 
sin, and be finally lost, is abundantly shown in the Scrip- 
tures." 

The proof-texts of apostacy and final loss of some Chris- 
tians. It will be noticed that every one of them contains an "if." 
They do not dogmatically assert that any Christian does aposta- 
tize, but they tell us what would be the consequence "if" a Chris- 
tian were to apostatize. They describe hypothetical, and not his- 
torical, cases. "If ye forsake him, he will forsake you" (2 Chron. 
15:2). "If he trust to his own righteousness, and commit in- 
iquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered" (Ezek. 
33 :I 3)- "if a man abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a 
branch, and is withered" (Jno. 15:6). "If a man shall draw 
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" (Heb. 10:38). "If 
ye do these things, ye shall never fall" (2 Pet. 1 :g). "If after 
they have escaped . . . they are again entangled therein and 
overcome, the latter end is worse than the beginning" (2 Pet. 
2:20). "If any of you do err from the truth, and one convert 
him" (Jas. 5:19). "It is impossible . if they fall away, 

to renew them again to repentance" (Heb. 6:4-6). "If we sin 
wilfully . . . there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin" 
(Heb. 10:26, 27). Notice the "if's." Where they are not ex- 
pressed, they are implied. And yet we are told, "If quotations 
from Scripture can, by their accuracy, variety, and fulness of 
expression, establish any doctrine, surely the possibility of a be- 
liever's apostacy is proved by the above quotations to be the doc- 
trine set forth in the Word of God." 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 291 

Proof-texts for the final perseverance of the saints. Notice 
the absence of "if's." They are assertive. They are declarative. 
They are categorical. "I give unto them eternal life, and they 
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my 
hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all ; and 
no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand" (Jno. 
10:28, 29). "Eternal life" — "they shall never perish!" "I am 
persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principali- 
ties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to sep- 
arate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" 
(Rom. 8:35-39). The apostle intends to sweep the gamut of 
possibilities, and affirm the inseparableness of Christ and the 
Christian. "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath 
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus 
Christ" (Phil. 1:6). He which began it will perfect it. Paul 
had no scepticism and no fears. "Kept by the power of God 
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" 
(1 Pet. 1:5). The power that converts is the power that will 
keep. "I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have 
committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:2). Suppose 
the bank fails, and the depositor loses his soul ! "All things 
work together for good to them that love God, to them who 
are the called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28). But sup- 
pose things work out in such a way that one who loved God and 
was called according to his purpose finally lost his immortal soul ? 
The "sheep" that strayed on the mountain side was "sheep" when 
it left the fold, was "sheep" when it was found, was "sheep" 
when it was brought back ; it never became a "goat." The "coin" 
which the woman lost was a "coin" when she lost it, was a "coin" 
when she found it, was a "coin" when the angels rejoiced with 
her; it never became a counterfeit. The "prodigal son" was a 
"son" when he left his father's house, was a "son" when feed- 
ing with the hogs, was a "son when he was received and feted ; 
he never became a bastard and alien. The children of God may 
act very ugly, and get very "low," but they never cease to be 
the children of God, and Grace will recover them every one. 



292 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

"Grace! 'tis a charming sound, 
Harmonious to mine ear; 
Heaven with the echo shall resound, 
And all the earth shall hear. 

Grace first contrived the way 

To save rebellious man; 
And all the steps that grace display, 

Which drew the wondrous plan. 



Grace all the work shall crown, 
Through everlasting days ; 

It lays in heaven the topmost stone, 
And well deserves the praise." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Regeneration 

In the ordo salutis of the Reformers, the schedule of Chris- 
tian experience, as drawn by Calvinists, is : ( I ) Regeneration ; 
(2) Faith; (3) Justification; (4) Adoption; (5) Sanctification ; 
(6) Glorification. These are the successive steps which the Spirit 
takes in the application of the benefits of the atonement of 
Christ in Christian Experience. 

That is, a sinner, becoming the subject of the saving grace 
of the Holy Ghost, is first regenerated ; then he believes in Christ ; 
then he is justified as a citizen in the kingdom of God ; then he 
is adopted, as a child in the family of God; then he is sanctified 
from all his sins and made perfectly holy, and then he is trans- 
lated to heavenly glory. This is the logical order in which grace 
produces the main facts of Christian life. 

In the Arminian soteriology, however, there is a marked and 
fundamental difference in the programme of experimental re- 
ligion under the gospel. The ordo salutis of this school of 
thought is: (1) Repentance; (2) Faith; (3) Justification; (4) 
Regeneration; (5) Sanctification; (6) Glorification. That is, a 
sinner first repents of his sins ; then he believes in Christ ; then 
he is justified ; then he is regenerated ; then he is sanctified ; 
then he is glorified. 

In the soteriology of the Reformers and Calvinists, grace is 
the efficient cause of all the phenomena of Christian Experi- 
ence ; and the very first act of grace, initiating a course of Chris- 
tian life, is Regeneration. 

In the Westminster symbol of doctrine, regeneration is in- 
cluded under the technicality of Effectual Calling, and was not 
at the time of the formulation of this creed a technicality in 
theology. "Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, where- 
by, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds 
in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth per- 
suade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered in 



294 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the gospel." Here regeneration connotes that revolutionary- 
change in human nature which enables a sinner to embrace his 
Redeemer. 

In the theology of the seventeenth century, it was used as 
a synonym of Conversion. But in present day soteriology, con- 
version is an effect of which regeneration is the cause. Re- 
generation is God's act changing the sinful heart; while conver- 
sion is treated as the initial act of the regenerated soul in turn- 
ing to Christ as its Saviour. In regeneration, the sinner is 
passive ; in conversion, he is active. 

Regeneration is sometimes used in a wide sense, and some- 
times in a narrow sense. In its wide sense it signifies the whole 
process of applying salvation in Christian experience; in the 
narrow sense it denotes the initial act of that application, the 
first and sole act of grace in imparting spiritual life to a soul 
dead in sin. The Romish theology employs the term in the 
wide sense, as comprehending everything involved in the transi- 
tion of the soul from a state of condemnation on earth to a 
state of salvation in heaven; so used, it covers the entire subject 
of Christian experience. The early Lutheran and Reformed 
theologians also employed it in its wide sense, yet putting upon 
its usage certain limitations which restricted it to the subjective 
changes in Christian life, using justification as a term to com- 
prehend all the external and objective elements in the applica- 
tion of redemption to the sinner. 

But this wide and somewhat vague use of the term led to 
confusion, and modern theology has sought to restrict it to that 
primary act of grace which inaugurates a course of religious life 
in the soul. 

I. Definition. — In its strict and narrow sense, Regenera- 
tor is that act of grace which changes the governing disposition 
of the sinful soul of man. To use other language in which to ex- 
press the same idea, regeneration is a gracious change- of the 
fundamental moral appetency of the soul. An appetite is a bodily 
craving; an appetency is a mental craving. Imagine a physical 
appetite so altered that what is now bitter would be sweet; 
imagine the nature of a lion so changed that it would possess, 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 295 

incipiently, the nature of the lamb ; imagine the moral appetency 
of the soul so fundamentally reconstructed, terminally, that it 
loves the religious virtues which it now hates ; and we can ar- 
rive at some approximately correct conception of the meaning 
of regeneration as it is now employed as a technicality in modern 
soteriology. It is a change of the fundamental religious ap- 
petency of the human heart. 

In figurative language derived from the Scriptures, regenera- 
tion is the opening of a blind eye; the unstopping of a deaf ear; 
the unloosing of a dumb tongue; the impotentiation of a with- 
ered arm ; the empowering of an impotent limb ; the quickening 
of a dead body; the sensitizing of a seared conscience; a new 
birth ; a resurrection from the dead ; a creating anew ; the giving 
of a heart of flesh for a heart of stone. Almost every figure is 
employed which connotes the initiation of a radical change, the 
opening of a new dynamic center, the projection of the sinner 
in the opposite direction of his moral spontaneity. By what- 
ever figurative name sin's effects are described, the initial act, 
starting the process of the eradication of those effects, is called 
regeneration. Every thing but God must have had a commence- 
ment — a point of beginning: regeneration is the commencement 
of a Christian experience, the start of a religious life. 

Is the sinner dead? Regeneration is a New Life. Is holi- 
ness thought of as non-existent in him? Regeneration is a New 
Creation. Is he considered as a man born in sin? Regeneration 
is a New Birth. Is he considered as a corpse in a sinful grave? 
Regeneration is a Resurrection from the sin-grave. Is he looked 
upon as a man with a depraved governing principle? Regenera- 
tion is a New Governing Principle. Is he regarded as a man 
with a ruling appetency for evil? Regeneration is a New Ap- 
petency for spiritual things. Is he a subject of the Spirit's sav- 
ing grace? Regeneration is that absolutely first thing which is 
done in him with a view to his transformation into a saint in 
the consummation of the whole redemptional process. 

II. Nature. — In explicating the nature of regeneration, I 
shall employ the five metaphysical causes as a good schema for 
the development of the doctrine. A cause is that without which 



296 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

another thing called the effect, could not be. The efficient cause 
is the power which brings the effect into being; for example, the 
carpenter is the efficient cause of my desk. The material cause 
is that of which the effect is made by the efficient power; for 
example, the walnut wood is the material out of which my desk 
is made. The instrumental cause is the tools or implements by 
which the effect is made ; for example, the tools which the car- 
penter used are the instrumental cause of my desk. The formal 
cause is that which gives definite shape to the effect, and differen- 
tiates it from every thing else ; for example, the peculiar design 
which the carpenter has given to my desk is its formal nature. 
The final cause is the end or purpose had in producing the effect ; 
for example, the final cause of my desk was, proximately, the 
money which the carpenter had in view, but ultimately, it was 
the uses to which the desk is to be put for writing or other 
purposes. I shall employ these ideas as a skeleton for present- 
ing the doctrine of regeneration, and ask what is the efficient, 
the material, the instrumental, the formal and the final cause 
of regeneration. 

III. Efficient Cause. — What then is the efficient or pro- 
ducing cause of regeneration? I answer, The grace of the Holy 
Spirit. 

But to approach this important point in a more systematic 
order, there are three leading answers to this question as to the 
efficient cause of regeneration: (1) the will of man; (2) the 
truth of the gospel; (3) the will of the Holy Ghost. 

1. The Pelagian and Arminian soteriologies posit the ef- 
ficient cause of regeneration in the will of the sinner who is 
regenerated. That is, man by his own hand reverses the moral 
spontaneity and the ruling spiritual appetency of his own soul. 
The power which effectuates the change is inherent in the 
creature who is the subject of the change : the dynamic of the 
Christian life is the will of the sinner. 

According to the Pelagian and Rationalistic party, the moral 
revolution is effected by the natural power of the human will ; 
while, according to the Semipelagian and Arminian party, this 
radical reversal of the governing disposition of the heart is ef- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 297 

fected by the gracious power of the will. In either view, the 
agency is the will; the will unaided in the scheme of the one 
party, the will as containing a deposit of gracious power in the 
opinion of the other party. Any sinner, every sinner, is able, 
in and of himself, to reverse himself, as the Pelagian views the 
case ; any sinner, every sinner, is able, by the assistance of divine 
grace, to reverse himself, as the Arminian sees the case. These 
schools of thought do not disagree as to the efficient cause of re- 
generation; with both that cause is the will of the sinner; but 
they disagree with each other as to the nature of the power 
which is subjective to that will; with the one it is the power 
which is in the will by creation, and with the other it is the 
power which is supernaturally and graciously deposited in that 
will. 

Whatever may be held as to the source and origin of the 
power of the will, whether it derives its power by creation or 
by grace, the entire hypothesis which posits the efficiency of re- 
generation in the sinner's will is objectionable, (1) on metaphy- 
sical grounds, and (2) on biblical grounds. 

(1) The hypothesis is metaphysically untenable. The facul- 
ties of the human soul, the powers by which it performs all mental 
acts, are intellect, or the faculty of cognition; the sensibility, or 
the faculty of feeling; the will, or the faculty of volition. Human 
life is made up of cognitions, feelings and volitions, and man 
certainly has the power of knowing things, of feeling things, and 
of doing things, and intellect, sensibility, and will, are the tech- 
nical faculties by which he performs all these departments of 
his life. 

The order in which these faculties are enumerated is the 
order in which they act; man first cognizes something, then he 
feels something, and then he does something. This order is 
logical, and is and can never be reversed. He never feels, and 
then knows the thing which excited the feeling, and then wills 
concerning the matter. He never wills, and then cognises, and 
then feels. The order of nature, in the genesis of human action, 
is (a) cognition, (b) feeling, (c) volition. Volition is the effect 
of feeling; feeling is the effect of cognition, and cognition is 



298 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the effect of fact; but the intellect acts according to the subjective 
laws of knowing, the feeling acts according to the subjective laws 
of emotion, and the will acts according to the subjective laws of 
volition which are stamped upon its internal constitution. An 
object being presented, the intellect, in accordance with its own 
subjective nature, cognizes it; being cognized, the sensibility is 
excited according to its own nature, and the feelings being ex- 
cited, the will volitionates according to the constitution which 
the Creator has impressed upon this faculty of action. 

Man is a fallen being, and all his faculties are affected by 
the depravity which is all-pervasive of his nature. His intellect 
is blinded, and does not see truly ; his sensibility is perverted 
and he does not feel accurately upon religious matters ; his will is 
debased, and does not emit a, true volition. The desideratum, 
then, is such a change as will rectify the perceptions and reas- 
onings of the understanding; such a change in the sensibilities 
as will correct its tastes and appetencies concerning the things of 
the Spirit; his will needs such a subjective change in the motives 
which rule it as will lead to correct volition. 

Now that theory of regeneration which posits the efficient 
cause of this change in the human will, reverses the laws of 
mental life and supposes that the will can change the fundamental 
disposition of the feelings, which are themselves the causes of 
volition. Man is, by the theory, supposed to be able to act back- 
wards, and by the power of his will change the governing dis- 
position of his heart, which governing disposition of his heart 
is the cause of his volition; that is, the effect (the volition) is 
supposed to change the cause (the fundamental appetency) ! 
Given a new view of the understanding, and a new feeling in 
the heart, then there may be a new volition of the will; but 
never otherwise. But this hypothesis proposes to get a new af- 
fection of the heart, and a new view of the understanding, by a 
new act of the will ! Man cannot thus command his feelings and 
his views ; it presumes that he can act backwards. 

"Man's volitions are practically the shadow of his affections. 
It is useless to think of a man's volitions separating themselves 
from his affections, and drawing him towards God, as it is to 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 299 

think of a man's shadow separating itself from him, and leading 
him in the opposite direction to that in which he is going. Man's 
affections, to use Calvin's words, are like horses that have thrown 
off the charioteer and are running wildly — they need a new hand 
to direct them. In disease, we must be helped by a physician. 
We do not stop a locomotive engine by applying power to the 
wheels, but by reversing the lever. So the change in man must 
be, not in the transient volitions, but in the deeper springs of 
action — the fundamental bent of the affections and will." — 
Strong's Theology, p. 450. 

Men act according to what they are ; out of the heart are the 
issues of life; as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he; as is the 
tree so is the fruit; the acts of life are but the indices of life. 
But this hypothesis, which supposes regeneration effected by will- 
power, proposes to reverse nature and nature's laws and change 
the fundamental moral nature of the human tree by the volitions 
of the will ! 

But it is said that if Adam had the power of will to reverse 
himself in the garden of Eden there is no reason why each one 
of his children may not exercise the same power and do the same 
thing today. But there are many things which, being done, can- 
not be undone ; the railroad engineer may "ditch" his engine, but 
he cannot replace it on the track ; a suicide may take his life, but 
he cannot restore that life again ; a man may puncture his heart 
with a knife, but he cannot heal the wound ; a holy man, like 
Adam, a probationer with the potestas peccare may commit moral 
suicide in the garden of Eden, but he cannot then restore his 
connection with God. The power of death does not imply the 
power of life. Man spiritually died when he sinned; he cannot 
recover himself to life ; he must be raised from the dead by some 
power outside of himself. 

(2) But this hypothesis which construes the human will as 
the efficient in regeneration is not only unphilosophical, but it is 
unbiblical also. No man can by acts of his will open his blind 
eyes, or unstop his deaf ears, or unloose: his dumb tongue, or 
stretch out his withered arm, or impotentiate his palsied legs, or 
quicken his dead soul, or transmute his stony heart, or give birth 



300 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

to himself, or make himself a new creature, or raise himself from 
the dead. All these are figures of speech employed by the Scrip- 
tures to set forth the moral state into which the fall brought man- 
kind ; and there must be some basis in reality to justify the use 
of the metaphors. These terms denote a work of omnipotent 
power. The origination of life is impossible to the creature. He 
can receive life, he can nurture life, he can use and exercise life, 
but he cannot originate life. His relation to regeneration is 
that of a recipient. At the punctum temporis of the resurrection 
of Lazarus he was passive, and at the moment of the resuscita- 
tion of the soul dead in trespasses and sins the sinner is passive, 
a patient acted upon and not an agent acting. Neither can a 
dead man assist in his reanimation. Two forces cannot co- 
operate except they be co-ordinate and co-incident : God and 
the sinner must harmonize before they can work together. "The 
carnal mind is at enmity with God," and pulls against him, until 
it is changed in its fundamental nature. And if a sinner were 
to give birth to himself, what kin would he be to himself? If a 
sinner were to create himself, what relation would he sustain 
to himself ? In making God the agent in regeneration it is denied 
that man is the agent and affirmed that he is patient. 

2. The second hypothesis predicates the truth, as it is in 
the gospel, as the efficient cause of regeneration. The will, we 
are told, is determined by motives ; the gospel, as preached pre- 
sents a system of motives, or reasons, why the sinner should re- 
verse his life; hence, inasmuch as the gospel brings into being 
the new complex of motives which determine the sinful will to 
the holy choice of Christ, the truth, as presented in the gospel, 
is the efficient cause of regeneration. 

This view is plausibly presented by Anderson, in this lan- 
guage : 

"The change of heart in regeneration is produced by a pre- 
vious change of judgment. The erroneous opinions of the sinner 
are corrected, and that corrects his feelings. He receives new 
information, and that gives another direction to his affections. 
Plainly, the Bible removes his delusions, and, in showing him the 
true nature of objects, makes him love many things which he 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 301 

formerly hated, and hate many things which he formerly loved. 
When he believes its report, when he takes Bible views of objects, 
looks at them through its telescope, looks at them through its 
microscope, looks at them through its atmosphere ; when he looks 
at God, looks at Christ, looks at himself, looks at his soul, looks 
at this world, looks at death, looks at eternity in Bible light, the 
look revolutionizes him. See what a commotion has been pro- 
duced among the affections of his spirit, so soon as this heavenly 
light, altering the decisions of his judgment, has dawned on his 
mind ! He is now with ardor pursuing objects which he form- 
erly despised, or feared, or abhorred, and fleeing, as when a man 
flees from the plague, or from his house on fire, from objects 
which he formerly considered harmless, or in which his soul de- 
lighted. The Bible light has disclosed friends where he thought 
there were none but foes, and foes where he thought there were 
none but friends." — Miley, Theology, Vol. II. , p. 335. 

(1) This is a charming description of the effects of the 
gospel — after regeneration has taken place, after the eyes of the 
understanding has been opened to behold wondrous things out 
of God's law ; after that "spiritual discernment" has been given, 
which enables the sinner to see that the things of the Bible are 
no longer foolishness, after the affections of the heart have been 
warmed to the religious truths contained in the revelation of 
God. The gorgeousness of the sunset may be perceived after the 
blind eye has been opened ; the sweetness of the music may be 
appreciated after the deaf ear has been unstopped ; the exhilira- 
tion of life may be felt after the dead has been raised; but it 
is a singular confusion to represent the light as causative of 
vision, the sound as causative of hearing, the exuberance as 
causative of living! The superlative desideratum is such a 
change in the understanding as will enable it to see clearly; in 
the heart as will enable it to feel truly; in the will as will cause 
it to volitionate accurately. Regeneration is just the technicality 
for these necessary subjective changes in the soul which render 
it responsive to the wonderful complex of motives which the 
gospel brings to bear upon life. A motive is the resultant of 
the views of the understanding and of the feelings of the heart, 



302 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

and prior to regeneration, that resultant is precisely such as 
sends the will in the opposite direction from heaven ; the im- 
perative need is for the Spirit of God to make just such sub- 
jective changes in the soul as will give a new resultant of vision 
and feeling. The gospel truth is precisely the matter presented, 
the object brought into the field of vision, feeling and action ; 
what is needed is a change in the views and feelings and con- 
duct concerning it. It brings to bear motives, but the soul is 
dead in sin, and obtuse and insensible and paralyzed. Motives 
are not external causes of action, but they are compounds of 
external objects and internal dispositions. Preaching presents 
the external object, but the Spirit must bring into being the in- 
ternal disposition which will make the soul sympathetic with the 
truth of the gospel. The saddest thing about the soul is, being 
created to know God and love the truth, it yet does not recognize 
him as incarnated in Christ Jesus, nor love him as thus presented, 
nor obey him as Lord and Master. 

(2) The Scripture passages relied upon to support this view 
of the truth as the efficient cause of regeneration, only apparently, 
and do not really yield the doctrine. "The entrance of thy words 
giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple" (Ps. 119:130). 
But before the words of God can give light and understanding, 
they must have "entrance" to the mind and heart; and it is just 
the office of regeneration to open that door of entry to the gospel 
of the Son of God. Another text relied upon reads : "Of his 
own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be 
a kind of firstfruits of his creatures" (Jas. 1:18). While the 
word of God performs an important office in the regeneration 
of a sinner, this text does not pointj to it as the efficient or pro- 
ducing cause of this change, but distinctly puts its finger upon the 
"will" of God as the power which causes the change. But the 
text most confidently and frequently relied upon as teaching the 
casual efficiency of the word of God in regeneration, begins 
with a participial clause : "Being born again, not of corruptible 
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and 
abideth for ever" (I Pet. 1:23). But the verse just preceding 
distinctly mentions the "Spirit" as the agent in the begetting of 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 303 

the soul anew, and the "seed" which that Spirit plants in the 
heart is not "corruptible," but incorruptible and imperishable — 
the principles of the word of God which lives and abides for ever. 
This is precisely what regeneration does, namely, fallows the 
soul so that the implanted principles of the word of God take 
root in its soil, and thrive imperishably. The supposition that 
the "seed" quickens the soil is a contradiction of the figure. The 
great power of the gospel as a system of divine truth lies in 
just those views which it gives to the understanding about re- 
ligious matters, and in those practical appeals which it makes to 
the human sensibility; but for these motives to have any impact 
and influence upon the soul, it must antecedently be regenerated, 
so as td be responsive to them. 

3. The third view indicates the Holy Spirit as the efficient 
causa of regeneration. "Except a man be born of water and of 
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (Jno. 3:5). 
"It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his 
good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). "The sons of God are born not of 
the will of man, but of God" (Jno. 1 113) . "I will put a new 
spirit within you, and will take the stony heart out of your flesh, 
and will give you a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 11 :i9). "A new heart 
will I give you" (Ezek. 36:26). "I will put my law in their 
inward parts, and write it in their hearts" (Jer. 31 133) . These 
passages are explicit in assigning the authorship of the funda- 
mental and primary change of regeneration to God, and thereby 
denying that man is self-regenerated, or truth-regenerated. 

But the biblical terms used to describe this great change are 
such as to make it obvious that regeneration is the sole work of 
God. "Creating anew" (Eph. 4:24); "begetting" (Jas. 1:18); 
"quickening" (Jno. 5:21); "calling out of darkness into light" 
(I Pet. 2:9) ; "commanding light to shine out of darkness" (II 
Cor. 4:6) ; "alive from the dead" (Rom. 6:13) ; "new creature" 
(II Cor. 5:17) ; "God's workmanship" (Eph. 2:10) ; "born again" 
(Jno. 3 13-7) . Effects such as these demand the supernatural 
power of almighty God as an adequate cause for their produc- 
tion; the human will, and the truth, are both alike incompetent 
to bring such phenomena into being. 



304 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

In inaugurating a course of grace, the power of the Spirit 
terminates upon the soul and not upon the truth ; it is the heart 
which is regenerated and not the gospel. Hence such phrases as 
"to energize the truth," "to intensify the truth," "to illuminate 
the truth," have no true and proper meaning, since the energy of 
the Spirit does not terminate upon the truth but upon the sinful 
spirit, converting its unsusceptibility into a responsive receptivity. 
The Lord opened "the heart" of Lydia (Acts 16:14). Truth is 
reality; it is what is; it is a fixed, and unchangeable thing, and 
the power of God can have no effect upon it. If it were the 
truth of the gospel which is regenerated, it would be the truth 
of the gospel which would need radical alteration. So God's 
work of regeneration is done within the soul itself, and not 
within the lids of the Bible. Consequently they are in error who 
describe regeneration as that work of grace which "energizes the 
truth" and renders it effective. The Bible needs no regeneration 
and the Spirit does not apply his dynamics to it; to take the 
other view, is to miss the terminus ad quern of the grace of re- 
generation. 

While regeneration is an immediate and supernatural act 
of the Spirit's grace, it is not a miraculous act. The essence of 
the miracle is the contranatural ; as when water is turned into 
wine contrary to the course and order of nature; or as when 
Lazarus is raised from the dead in utter contravention of the 
laws of nature. In regeneration the soul's spontaneity is re- 
versed, but its laws and constitution are in no true sense violated. 
For a locomotive engineer to reverse his lever and send his engine 
running in the opposite direction is not in contravention of the 
nature of his machine ; the engine is reversed, but in accordance 
with its mechanism. So when God regenerates a sinner, the 
flow of his moral life is reversed, but its moral constitution and 
intrinsic nature are not violated ; the act is not contranatural, the 
laws of the soul are not contradicted; its governing principle is 
reversed and it now moves naturally and regularly in the oppo- 
site direction from that in which the current of its spiritual life 
had previously been running. Consequently every conversion is 
not miraculous; no saint is a miracle. He is not like water 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 305 

changed into wine ; he is a human being with all his natural and 
normal faculties, living in opposite moral direction, with a re- 
versed inclination, with a counter spontaneity. He is a tree with 
another "bent," not a tree miraculously changed into something 
else, but the same tree which had been crooked towards the 
north, now crooked towards the south. It is the supernatural 
power of the Spirit — power above nature — which thus alters the 
moral "bent" of the sinner's nature in regeneration, but it is not 
miraculous power, which performs in him an unnatural and con- 
tranatural change. 

IV. Material Cause. — What then is the material cause of 
regeneration? Wood is the material which the carpenter took, 
and out of it manufactured my writing desk. What, in the 
analogue, is the matter which the Spirit of God takes, and out 
of it makes an article called Regeneration ? 

Five metaphysical items have been proposed as the specific 
"material" which the Spirit manipulates in regeneration : ( 1 ) 
Substance of the soul; (2) the Faculties of the soul; (3) the 
human Spirit (pneuma) as distinguished from the body (soma) 
and the animal life (psuke) ; (4) the Relations and Environ- 
ment of the soul; (5) the Disposition or Appetency of the soul. 

1. It is not the Substance of the soul. Regeneration is not 
a transubstantiation. In the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, ac- 
cording to the Papal theory of this ordinance, the substance of 
the bread is changed into the substance of flesh and the substance 
of the wine is changed into the substance of the blood of Christ; 
the phenomenal properties of the bread and wine remain to the 
senses but the unseen substance is supposed to have been trans- 
muted into the substance of the body and blood of our Lord ; it 
is a supposed instance of transubstantiation. If the substance 
of wood were changed into the substance of iron, the wood 
would cease to be wood and become in reality iron. If in re- 
generation the substance of the human soul were changed into 
some other and different substance, then man, after his regenera- 
tion, would cease to be substantially man and become some new 
thing. That is, the saint would be as different from the sinner 



306 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

as the bread, after the sacerdotal prayer of consecration, is 
supposed to be different from the bread before the prayer of the 
priest acted upon it. But a regenerated man is as truly human 
after this act of grace upon him as he was before he experienced 
the change of heart, called regeneration. A converted man is 
conscious that he is not substantively a different sort of being. 
He is changed, but he is a changed man, and not changed into 
some other kind of metaphysical creature. 

Nor yet is regeneration a consubstantiation. According to the 
Lutheran theory of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, after the 
prayer of consecration the body and blood of Christ are with, in, 
under or by the substance of the bread and the wine ; two sub- 
stances are imagined to be mystically joined under the phenome- 
nal properties of the bread and the wine. If wood were con- 
substantiated with iron, then we should have two substances un- 
derlying and supporting one set of attributes; which would be 
an unthinkable absurdity, for it is an axiom of philosophy that 
like substances underprop like attributes and like attributes in- 
here in like substances ; and, consequently, if we think of two 
substances, say wood and iron, conjoined, they would, by this 
simple metaphysical axiom, reveal themselves by a double set 
of attributes; the entity formed by consubstantiation would be 
two things at one and the same time. If, therefore, regeneration 
were a consubstantiation, if the Spirit created a new substance 
with, in, under or by the old substance of the soul, then man, 
after regeneration, would, in strict literalness, be two men, which 
is a violation of his most elementary consciousness. 

Regeneration does not, therefore, terminate upon the soul- 
substance of man, either to transmute that substance into a new 
sort of substance or to create another substance with, in, under or 
by, or in some other mystical relation to, the old substance. In 
other words, and in short, regeneration does not alter man's per- 
sonal identity. This is not the meaning, when the regenerated 
man is called a "new creature." There is a newness, but it is 
not a newness of substance. 

2. Regenerating grace does not terminate upon the Facul- 
ties of the soul (a) It does not annihilate one of the old facul- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 307 

ties; (b) it does not create and add a new faculty; (c) it does 
not alter the subjective nature, or the internal laws of operation, 
of any one of the faculties. The faculties of the sinner's mind 
prior to regeneration are intellect, sensibility and will ; and the 
faculties of the sinner's mind after regeneration are the same. 
The psychology, metaphysics and philosophy of the Christian are 
the same as of the sinner. The laws of thought, the laws of 
feeling, the laws of willing, abide unaltered and unreconstructed. 
Indeed the complement of faculties and the modes of their opera- 
tion are the same in heaven as on earth. 

There are those who think that there is a special sin-faculty — 
a specific organ for committing sin, as there is a specific faculty 
of cognition. And there are those who think that regeneration 
annihilates this sin-faculty and creates a specific faith-faculty — a 
specific mental organ for religion and the eternal verities, as 
we have a specific power for knowing, feeling and willing. But 
a sinner exercises the same mental functions in his sinning, in 
his wrong doing, which he employs in any and every other de- 
partment of life ; he cognizes Christ and the things of the gospel 
with the same intellectual faculty with which he cognizes the 
facts of natural science; he loves the Redeemer with the same 
heart with which he loves his kindred, or his friends, or his 
country ; he obeys the gospel with the same will with which he 
performs the most common-place acts of his daily life. What 
is sound logic for the unregenerated man is sound logic for the 
regenerated man ; the laws of thinking are not reversed, so as 
to upset the axioms of thought. Regeneration destroys no mental 
faculty, creates no new faculty, nor alters the mode of the opera- 
tion of any faculty ; the psychology of the mind is the same after 
as before regeneration. Consciousness proves this identity. 

There are changes in the way in which the regenerated man 
looks at Christ, feels towards Christ, acts under Christ, as com- 
pared with his views and feelings and conduct prior to this funda- 
mental change, but these variations come about, not through some 
change introduced into the constitution of mental life. His in- 
tellect reverses its former judgment; his sensibility reverses its 
former feelings, and his will reverses its former conduct in re- 



308 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

lation to the Redeemer and his religion ; but these changes are 
only sequential, and not causative. 

3. Nor is the Pneuma, the higher power of the soul, the 
material upon which regenerating grace terminates with recon- 
structive influences. This hypothesis assumes the soundness of 
trichotomy, and analyses the human being into three factors : 

(a) the Rational Spirit {pneuma). (b) the Physical Life 
(psuke). and (c) the Body (soma). The Pneuma of the un- 
regenerate sinner is evil, the very spirit of sin ; in regenera- 
tion this evil spirit is supposed to be annihilated and a holy and 
godly Pneuma is imagined to be created in its stead. Regenera- 
tion is, therefore, neither psychic nor somatic, but it is precisely 
and definitely pneumatic. This was the view of the elder 
Delitzsch. 

This view must be discarded: (a) Because the philosophy 
of trichotomy is fallacious ; man is not a triad ; the Pneuma 
(pneuma) and the Psyche (psuke) are synonyms, and used 
interchangeably in Scripture for the second, or immaterial 
element, in the constitution of man; the pneumatology of man 
is the same thing, by another name, as the psychology of man. 

(b) Because the view, if true, would interpret regeneration as 
only partial ; only one-third, the pneumatic third, of human nature 
would be the subject of the Spirit's regenerating influences ; 
whereas the Scriptures teach that the entire nature of man is 
radically altered by this operation of the Holy Ghost. Sin af- 
fected the somatic and the psychic life of man, and the remedy 
must be as deep and as wide as the disease. Redemption con- 
templates, in its consummation, the body, the life and the soul 
of man ; and the regenerate change must be as extensive and as 
thorough as was the influence of sin. There is a somewhat, to 
be indicated in the sequel, which, being changed, affects the 
totality of human life and destiny. 

4. Nor does regeneration terminate upon the Relations and 
Environment of man. His external surroundings are not the 
materials which the Spirit of God lays hold upon and recon- 
structs. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 309 

In the modern philosophy of evolution, now so popular, so 
regnant and so fallacious, "environment" is held to be a potent 
and potential cause of many of the profoundest determinate 
variations in organic development. Given an inherent force, a 
subjective dynamic, and the homogeneous can be differentiated, 
we are told, into the heterogeneous, by successive differentiations 
under the influences of change in the external environment of the 
individual. In this way all the lower forms of animal life have 
been gradually evolved into the higher forms; one species, it is 
held, has been transmuted into another species by alterations 
made in its surroundings. Lamarck claimed that "environment," 
direct and indirect, was the most influential factor in the evolu- 
tion of species. Drummond defined life as "correspondence with 
environment," and death as "disharmony with environment." 
These definitions he thought good for all kinds of life — vegetable, 
animal, human, spiritual. 

If, then, "environment" is so potent and constructive, the 
superlative desideratum for any and every sinner is an altered 
environment — another atmosphere in which to breathe, another 
set of circumstances in which to move and operate. A sinful 
life is one out of correspondence with a heavenly environment; 
it needs a new and spiritual environment in which to grow and 
develop in godliness ; regeneration is that precise act of the Holy 
Ghost which changes the religious environment of the soul. Here 
is the species tadpole; the problem is to change it into the species 
homo; to accomplish the transmutation, all that is required are 
successive variations in the environment of the tadpole and an 
indefinite time. Similarly, here is the species sinner, and the 
problem is to change him into the species saint ; all that is re- 
quired to effect the transmutation are successive variations in the 
sinner's environment and a sufficiency of time, and the result 
aimed at will be eventually achieved by the forces which are in- 
herent in the sinner operating under the altered environment. 

(1) This view is unacceptable because the philosophy which 
lies at its base and supports it is the sheerest hypothesis. God 
created every thing after its "kind," and all organic species have 
remained, from their creation until now identical and immuta- 



310 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

ble. There is not an authenticated instance in historic time of 
the transmutation of one species into another, by heredity, by 
environment, by natural selection, or in any other mode. But 
the change of a sinner into a saint is a matter of daily occur- 
rence and of common observation ; to postulate a mere scientific 
hypothesis, unproved and without any established instance, as ex- 
planatory of the mode in which these spiritual changes occur is 
the sheerest absurdity. If "environment" differentiates no or- 
ganic species, it is absolutely inadmissible to suppose that it is 
"environment" which differentiates the species sinner into the 
species saint. 

(2) Moreover, there is no such thing as a "species" sinner 
and no such being as a "species" saint. The classification is not 
true to fact. The "species" is man (homo) ; and the sinner is 
an immoral man and the saint is a holy man. The qualities dif- 
ferentiating them are not organic but ethical. If the evolution 
of species were true the doctrine is inapplicable to the sinner, 
for the reason that he is not, in any strict sense, a species of 
being. A sinner is a man living an unethical life ; a saint is a 
man living a godly life; the differences between them are not 
specific. 

(3) Upon the supposition that the race is fallen and that 
the individual is "dead in trespasses and sins," there is some- 
thing nonsensical in the proposition to get a new life by merely 
changing the environment of that life. There must be a living, 
potential being in the center of the external circumstances to 
utilize and translate and transform the external circumstances, 
else they must remain impotent and unemployed. Whitewashing 
and garnishing the sepulchre leaves it filled with dead men's 
bones, dressing and adorning the corpse leaves it a corpse still. 
The feet go wrong because the heart is wrong; the hands go 
wrong because the heart is wrong; the tongue goes wrong be- 
cause the heart is wrong ; the head goes wrong because the heart 
is wrong; the life is ethically wrong because the central heart 
is depraved ; and the supreme desideratum is not merely a new 
set of surroundings but a new central, dynamic heart, out of 
which are the issues of life. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 311 

The gospel and its preachings, the Church and its institutions, 
constitute for the sinful soul its gracious, Christian "environ- 
ment," the external influences which make for a better moral 
life, the opportunity which is created by the divine love for the 
sinner to change from his evil ways to correct moral behaviour, 
and it is impossible to overstate the true worthfulness of this set 
of evangelical surroundings as an external system promotive of 
the true and higher life of the soul; but such an "environment" 
would be available for the purpose only on the supposition that 
the soul is potent and active. It is a broad and true generaliza- 
tion that the circumstances do not make the man but the man 
makes the circumstances ; the circumstances give the opportunity 
without which the career and the conduct could not be formed, 
but it is the personality and the force of the individual which 
lay hold upon these circumstances and transmute them into con- 
duct and character. Upon the supposition that man has never 
fallen but possesses the full complement of moral powers and 
self-usefulness with which he was endowed by his Maker, there 
would be some sense in supposing that all that he needs is op- 
portunity and occasion — a gospel, a Church, its institutions, a 
sound regime of healthful moral culture, a sanitary propaedeutic, 
a wise curriculum of ethical education ; but upon the supposition 
that he is depraved at the center of his heart, the moral change 
must be introduced at the center before it can manifest itself on 
the circumference of life. A corrupt tree will bring forth cor- 
rupt fruit in spite of the character and degree of culture which 
may be given to it. A grape vine can only bring forth grapes 
and a bramble vine bramble berries, whether planted in a garden, 
or growing wild in the jungle. The material cause of regenera- 
tion is not the "environment" of life ; the "new creature" is not 
obtainable through a change in the mere external surroundings ; 
these only give to life its opportunities. 

5. The "matter" of regeneration, that upon which the effi- 
cient power of the Spirit terminates and reconstructs, is truly and 
properly the soul's governing moral disposition, its regnant moral 
appetency, its ruling moral passion, the fons et origo of its moral 
life. 



312 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Call it by what name you fancy best or the nomenclature of 
your philosophy makes most appropriate — a disposition, an appe- 
tency, a principium, a passion, an inclination, a habitus — there is 
a something in human nature which determines its moral life, 
the way in which the intellect looks at Christ and the things of 
the Spirit, the way in which the heart feels about Christ and 
the things of his gospel, the way in which the will acts concern- 
ing the precepts and ideals of Christ and his religion. By what- 
ever name you may elect to call it, there is a ruling principle 
which lies below the intellect and determines its cast of view ; 
lies deeper than the sensibility and determines its complexion of 
feeling; lies behind the will and determines the trend of human 
conduct ; it is the thing which gives definitiveness and uniqueness 
to moral life. The Scriptures call it the "heart," the "life," the 
"discernment." But whatever the biblical, the philosophical, the 
popular name of this governing principle, it is the subject-matter 
of regeneration, the item in man's moral spontaneity which the 
Spirit reverses. Not its substance, not its faculties, not its higher 
spirit, not its "environment," but its distinctive moral appetency, 
is the "matter" which is changed by the grace of regeneration. 
In this mode a sinner is made a "new creature in Christ Jesus." 

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God" (Jno. 3 :3). What is it that is "born again?" Not the sub- 
stance of the soul, for that would convert the subject of regenera- 
tion into a different kind of metaphysical creature ; not the facul- 
ties of the soul, for that would give only new organs of life ; 
not the higher powers of the soul as differentiated from the lower, 
for that would be but a partial regeneration; not the "environ- 
ment," for that would be a change in the external surroundings ; 
but it is the "man" which must be "born again," man at and in 
the center of his life. 

"If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature:, old 
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II 
Cor. 5:17). It is the "man" which is in Christ Jesus, and the 
"man" which becomes a new creature; and the change of the 
"man" is such that old things pass away and all things become 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 313 

new to his vision, to his heart, to his behaviour. What is central 
to the "man" is the subject of this predication. 

"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor 
uncircumcision, but a new creature" (Gal. 6:15). Nothing done 
to a man, nothing done for him, nothing done about him, but 
something done in him, avails to make him the "new creature" 
in Christ Jesus. He must be touched and transformed in the 
dynamic center of his moral life before the environment of the 
gospel and the opportunities of a godly life are utilizable by him. 

These texts describe this regenerate change in such a way 
as to indicate that it occurs, not in the superficies but at the central 
and deepest point of moral life. "Even when we were dead in 
sins . . . hath quickened us together with Christ" (Eph. 
2:5). "Put on the new man, which after God is created in right- 
eousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24). "Of his own will begat 
he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first- 
fruits of his creatures" (Jas. 1:18). And a multitude of other 
texts might be cited to show that the change effected in regenera- 
tion is a change in the central regnant disposition of the soul. 

V. Instrumental Cause. — In the manufacture of my desk 
the carpenter used certain tools with which to operate upon the 
wood which was his material; what, in the analogue, were the 
tools which the Spirit employed in his operation upon the gov- 
erning moral disposition of the soul in order to make the "new 
creature in Christ Jesus?" What is the instrumental cause of 
regeneration? I answer: "There is none." 

Upon this topic, however, there are three general opinions : 
(1) Baptism; (2) the Gospel; (3) the Immediate Power of the 
Holy Spirit. 

(1) Romish, Lutheran and Anglican theologians hold that 
regeneration is effected by the Spirit through the sacrament of 
baptism as an instrumentality. These parties differ from each 
other in the intensity with which they hold this opinion rather 
than in the substance of the doctrine. The fullest, and vilest 
form of it is imbedded in that Romish sacramentarianism which 
brought about the apostacy of the Dark Ages and rendered the 
Protestant Reformation absolutely necessary in order to pre- 



314 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

serve the Christian religion in the earth. From this baleful 
theory the Lutheran and Anglican Reformers never completely 
divorced themselves, each continuing, after the Reformation, to 
hold that regeneration is so connected with the ordinance of 
baptism as to make the one necessary to the other, and the other 
to follow somehow logically from the one. 

But the Scriptures represent baptism to be, not the means 
of regeneration, but only the sign of this great primary act of 
saving grace; baptism therefore presupposes and follows re- 
generation and is not causative of it. For this reason only be 
lievers and their infant children were Scriptural subjects of this 
sacrament. Under the Old economy Abraham believed, and then 
received circumcision as the "seal" of his faith; the work of 
grace had been done in him prior to his receiving the external 
ordinance. Under the New Testament dispensation the disciples 
were commissioned to first make disciples of all men and then 
to baptize them. On the day of Pentecost those converted first 
repented and confessed their Saviour, then they were baptized 
by Peter (Acts 2:37, 41). At Samaria the converts first be- 
lieved in Christ and then Philip baptized them (Acts 8:12). And 
so of all the cases recorded ; there was an experience of saving 
grace prior to the administration of the sacramental ordinance, 
and consequently regeneration could not have been accomplished 
through baptism as an instrumentality. 

Upon this view of regeneration by baptism there is an in- 
tolerable incongruity between the sign and the thing signified. 
The thing signified is an inward spiritual change; the sign is an 
outward and physical ordinance performed upon the body of the 
person baptized. It is not rational to suppose that God recon- 
structs the fundamental moral life of the soul by a physical per- 
formance of somewhat upon the bodily organism. If so, every 
baptism is a genuine miracle, for water applied to the body is 
made to cleanse the immaterial soul, which is the essence of the 
contranatural. The whole view is objectionable as a part and 
parcel of a general scheme of mechanical, rather than moral, 
religion and harmonizes more naturally with the materialistic 
rather than with the spiritual philosophy. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 315 

The texts mainly relied upon by the adherents of this opinion 
do not legitimately support the contention. "Except a man be 
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
of God" (Jno. 3:5). "Repent, and be baptized every one of 
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and 
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38). "He 
saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the 
Holy Ghost" (Tit. 3:5). These may be taken as specimens of 
the strongest Scriptures for baptismal regeneration. But these 
texts are to be explained as simple instances of the figure of 
metonomy, in which the sign is put for the thing signified. Re- 
generation, the inward change, the thing really indicated, and 
baptism, the outward sign, are only different sides or aspects of 
the same fact, and either side therefore may legitimately be de- 
scribed in terms of the other side or aspect. The reality is the 
Spirit, and the symbol is water, and we find throughout both 
Testaments that all the saving facts of the gospel are gathered 
under the two symbolic heads of blood and water — the one being 
symbolical of the work of Christ and the other being symbolic 
of the work of the Spirit. It is legitimate to speak of the blood 
of Christ and the water of the Spirit, and it is equally legitimate 
to represent the atoning work of Christ in terms of blood, and 
the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Spirit in terms of 
water. Before a man can enter into the kingdom of heaven he 
must be born of symbolic water, which is the grace of the Spirit. 
There is not in this famous saying of our Lord the slightest 
allusion to the sacrament of baptism. And so the whole vicious 
scheme of baptismal regeneration falls to the ground. 

(2) But it is contended by others, with a show of plausi- 
bility, that regeneration is effected by the Spirit with the truth 
of the gospel as his instrumentality. It is not held by this party 
that the Spirit regenerates the truth, but that the truth is his 
implement, with which he reaches down into the soul and funda- 
menally changes its governing moral disposition ; the power is 
the Spirit's grace, the implement is the gospel. This is held to 
be the prime usefulness of preaching in the world. But this view 
is radically unsound. 



31 6 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

The soul is passive at the punctum temporis of regenera- 
tion ; but for the truth to be available as a means of regeneration 
the soul must necessarily act upon the truth, receiving and ap- 
propriating it. It is therefore thoroughly inconsistent to hold in 
one breath that the heart is passive in the act of regeneration and 
in the next take the ground that the truth is the instrumentality 
of this change. It is equal to saying that the soul is dead and 
alive at the same instant, which is an unendurable contradiction. 
Regeneration must take place before the intellect can see truly, 
or the feelings can act correctly, or the will can energize properly 
upon the things which are presented in the gospel. The very 
purpose of regeneration is to put the soul into such a religious 
condition subjectively as to act upon the truth of the gospel. 
Consequently regeneration must precede and condition all efficacy 
of the gospel upon the mind, heart and life of the sinner. When 
regenerated, then the soul believes the gospel, loves its Saviour, 
and obeys, relatively, its precepts. The photographic plate must 
be sensitized before the light can make any impression upon it. 

The same Spirit employs the same instrument upon all the 
members of the congregation; some reject the gospel and others 
accept it ; why ? Not, because the Spirit is inefficient ; not because 
the instrument is inadequate; not because the sinner is non-co- 
operative. Those who hold to the doctrine of sinful inability 
cannot answer this question, and they consequently surrender a 
fundamental tenet of the Calvinistic anthropology when they at- 
tempt to make the truth of the gospel the instrumental cause of 
regeneration. 

A distinction is needed in order to clarify this phase of the 
subject. There is some important and indispensable office for 
the gospel in connection with regeneration ; they err who make it 
the efficient cause of this radical change and they err who make 
it the instrumentality of this change. In the case of adults, the 
gospel is a concomitant of regeneration. The moment a sinful 
soul is quickened, it at once stands in need of something to act 
upon, some Christ in which to believe, some Saviour to love, 
some precept to be obeyed; this need is supplied by the gospel. 
To regenerate a man in heathenism would be to open his blind 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 317 

eyes to look upon moral vacuity, to soften his callous heart to 
feel sheer emptiness, to potentiate his disabled will to follow 
no leadership. If, however, the gospel should be present on the 
occasion of his conversion, the new life has a guide-book of life 
in its hands and knows whither to turn its opened eye and whom 
to obey with its renewed will. Here then, I imagine is the cor- 
rect formula : Regeneration is not through the truth of the gospel, 
and yet it is not without that truth. The gospel, leaving out the 
exceptional case of the infant which is mentally incapable, is the 
invariable con-comitant, or companion, of the Spirit in regenera- 
tion; and it is the supreme business of the preacher to be pres- 
ent with the gospel when the Spirit regenerates so that the quick- 
ened soul may see, on opening its intellectual eye, Jesus, may love 
him with its vivified heart and obey him with its renewed will. 
But this is a vastly different thing from saying that the gospel 
is the instrumental cause of regeneration. 

This great and essential and primary change is wrought by 
the immediate and direct agency of the Holy Ghost, and conse- 
quently there is no instrumental cause of regeneration. The 
initial act of grace is taken without the use of any means what- 
soever; the Spirit reverses the spontaneity of the soul with his 
own hand, but in the presence of gospel truth and direction. The 
doctrine of regeneration in connection with the word, sufficiently 
explains such texts as "of his own will begat he us with the 
word of truth" (Jas. 1:18). 

(3) The third view then is the only one consistent with 
Scripture and tenable in psychology, namely, that regeneration is 
wrought by the immediate agency of the Spirit without any in- 
strumentality whatsoever through which that power is trans- 
mitted to the sinful soul. It is a "creating," and there are no 
instruments of creation ; it is a "resurrection," and there are no 
instruments of resurrection ; it is an "opening of blind eyes," 
an "unstopping" of deaf ears, a "healing" of withered limbs, 
and there were no instruments by which these symbolic miracles 
were performed by the Lord. The sons of God "were born, 
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of! man, 
but of God" (Jno. 1 113) . If it were effected only through the 



318 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

truth as an instrumentality, then the infant, idiot, and moral in- 
competent could not be regenerated; and if it were effected 
only through baptism, then all persons dying unbaptized must 
necessarily perish ; but if it is accomplished by the direct agency 
of the Spirit, without any external means, this class of persons 
would be salvable because they are capable of being born again 
and of using their regenerate powers upon the gospel surround- 
ings whenever they come to the years of moral discretion or to a 
state of mental soundness and competency, in this life or in the 
life beyond the grave. 

VI. Formal Cause. — What is the formal cause of regen- 
eration? The carpenter took walnut wood and with his tools 
shaped it into my writing desk ; the Spirit takes the governing 
disposition of the soul, or its moral appetency, and without tools 
gives it what "shape" or form? I answer: A holy cast. 

Regeneration is the transformation of a sinful disposition 
into a holy disposition, the conversion of an aversion to the 
things of the Spirit into an appetency for the things of the Spirit. 
The fundamental moral appetite of the heart is changed into a 
love for the Bible and the Bible's Redeemer. Holiness con- 
stitutes its specific, formal and differentiating nature. The old 
is made new ; death is changed to life ; blindness is changed to 
sight ; impotence is changed to power ; stoniness is changed to 
flesh ; hostility to God is changed to love of God ; uncongeniality 
with the gospel is changed into sympathy with and responsiveness 
to this scheme of sacred truth; the eye that looked down is made 
to look up ; the face that was set away from heaven is turned 
towards heaven — this is all done seminally, infolding the prophecy 
of complete holiness in the final and perfect work of sanctifica- 
tion. The regenerate man can say: Whereas I was blind, now 
I see; whereas I was deaf, now I hear the sweet music of the 
gospel ; whereas I was lame and impotent, now my feet are 
strong and swift to run in the ways of the Lord ; whereas I 
was dead in trespasses and sins, now I live, nevertheless, not I, 
but Christ liveth in me. Sinfulness and holiness are opposites ; 
in regeneration the sinful governing disposition is changed into 
a holy governing disposition. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 319 

Regeneration is an initial act of grace, which is expanded 
through the broad and progressive work of sanctification into 
entire and perfect holiness. Regeneration itself is the implanta- 
tion in the deepest depths of the soul of the "seed" of a holy life ; 
sanctification is the cultural process by which this seed is brought 
to the perfection of flower and fruit of godliness. In biblical 
language, regeneration changes the old sinful heart, seminally, 
into the "new heart," out of which are all the issues of a holy 
life and career in grace. 

Its formal nature may be illustrated by a tree which has an 
inclination toward the north, which has been subsequently in- 
clined in the opposite direction toward the south; the incline 
of the tree is called its "bent" ; regeneration changes the moral 
"bent" of the soul from sin towards holiness. The general direc- 
tion of a mountain range is called its "trend," and regeneration 
is that act of the Spirit which reverses the moral "trend" of the 
soul. The flow of the Mississippi river is from lake Itasca at 
the north, to the Gulf of Mexico at the south; regeneration is 
that act of grace which changes the "flow" of the moral cur- 
rent of the soul from evil to godliness. We know what we mean 
by the "nature" of the lion and the "nature" of the lamb; re- 
generation is that act of the Holy Ghost which changes the 
fierceness of the lion into the gentleness of the lamb ; more 
strictly speaking, begins the change, which is carried on to per- 
fection in sanctification. One has a taste for the scenery of the 
flat country and at the same time he has an aversion for the 
rugged grandeur of the mountains ; suppose his "taste" semin- 
ally reversed, so that he has an aversion for the flat scenery of 
the lowlands and an attraction for the elevated views of the high- 
lands ; we would have in such a reversal "taste" an illustration 
of the change effected in regeneration in changing the moral 
"taste" of the soul. The old Adam and the new Adam; the 
old man and the new man; the natural man and the spiritual 
man ; the law of sin and the law of life ; the principle of evil and 
the principle of goodness ; the goats and the sheep ; the children 
of Satan and the children of God; sinners and saints — these are 
all so many biblical contrasts and regeneration is that act of 



320 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

grace which starts the transformation from one kind of moral 
creature to the opposite kind. Everything has its polarity ; the 
earth has its north pole and its south pole, its boreal magnetism 
and its austral magnetism; and the soul has its moral polarity, 
and its magnetism is for sin and its polarity is away from God ; 
regeneration reverses the moral polarity and magnetism of the 
soul. It opens a new dynamic center of moral and religious life. 
It changes the governing disposition of the soul from a principle 
that genders sin to a principle that genders holiness. Regenera- 
tion begins the change; sanctification completes and perfects it. 

VII. Final Cause. — To ascertain the final cause of any- 
thing we must inquire for the ends, purposes, uses, fruits of the 
thing considered. In making my desk the immediate object which 
the carpenter had in view was the remuneration which he was 
to receive, but the ultimate end which he had was to make a 
desk which would subserve the purpose of a writing table. What 
was the Spirit's object in taking the sinful governing moral dis- 
position of the soul and, without any means, immediately con- 
verting it into a holy governing principle ? I answer : ( I ) Proxi- 
mately, to procure the fruits of godliness; (2) Ultimately, the 
glorification of God. 

1. The immediate, or proximate, result of regeneration may 
be succinctly and generically described as conversion. The sinful 
soul is passively regenerated in order that it may be actively 
converted. 

"Regeneration is the cause of conversion. The Holy Spirit 
acts in regeneration, and as a consequence the human spirit acts 
in conversion. And as the act of regeneration is not divisible 
between God and man, neither is the act of conversion. The 
converting activity of the regenerate soul moves in two directions : 
(a) Faith, which is the converting or turning of the soul to Christ 
as the Redeemer from sin. (b) Repentance, which is the con- 
verting or turning of the soul to God as the supreme good. Re- 
generation is instantaneous, conversion is continuous. " Faith is 
gradual and unceasing, and so is repentance; but regeneration 
is effected and completely once for all." — Shedd; Theology, Vol. 
II., p. 509. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 321 

This is an excellent statement of the proximate teleology 
of regeneration. The soul is regenerated in order that it may 
believe, or change the ground of moral life from self as a basis 
to Christ as the basis ; and in order that it may repent, or change 
the end of moral life from self as the chief good to God as the 
supreme good. When a man believes in Christ, he changes the 
foundation of his life ; when he repents, he changes the super- 
structure of life, reforms, "quits his meanness." He is regen- 
erated in order that he may do this twofold thing. In order that 
he may make such a turning, or reversal of life, he needs three 
things : 

(1) New views of the understanding. In the intellect, re- 
generation manifests itself as illumination. Illumination is not 
regeneration itself, but one of the phenomenal revelations of re- 
generation. Prior to regeneration the spiritual eye is blind ; the 
soul looks at God, at the world, at man, at sin, at Christ, at 
spiritual life, at time, at eternity, at heaven, at hell, at all the 
contents of religion, but his whole view is false and perverted ; 
but after regeneration the contents of the entire moral horizon 
have a different appearance to his eye. "God who commanded 
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to 
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face 
of Jesus Christ" (II. Cor. 4:6). "The eyes of your understand- 
ing being enlightened" (Eph. 1:18). "The natural man receiv- 
eth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness 
unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually 
discerned" (I Cor. 2 :i4). That unexperimental knowledge which 
the unregenerate man has of Christ and the gospel is character- 
ized as "ignorance." The effect of regeneration in the under- 
standing is to give to it "spiritual discernment" — a new view of 
Christ and the gospel. The product of this regenerated cogni- 
tion is "saving knowledge." 

(2) The effect of regeneration in the sensibility is to create 
a new affection for the person of Christ and his work. As the 
regenerate man sees differently, so he feels differently about the 
things of the Spirit. "I will put a new spirit within you, and I 
will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give 



322 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

them a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 11:19). "Renew a right spirit 
within me" (Ps. 51 :io). "The Lord direct your hearts into the 
love of God" (II. Thess. 3:5). "If any man love not the Lord 
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, Maranatha" (I Cor. 16:22). 
There is a long list of Christian emotions mentioned throughout 
the Scriptures which are but the fruits of regeneration as it 
manifests itself in the realm of human sensibility ; there is a 
saving trust, a saving love, a saving hope, a saving joy, a saving 
peace, a saving fear, all but the products of the regenerated 
principle which was implanted by the Holy Spirit when he re- 
versed the governing disposition of the soul. 

(3) With respect to the human will, regeneration mani- 
fests itself in this department of life as a "renewal." Christian 
volitions and Christian conduct are but the products of this deep 
and radical conversion of the governing principle of moral life. 
"May the God of peace make you perfect to do his will, work- 
ing in you that which is well pleasing in his sight" (Heb. 13:21). 
"God worketh in you to will" (Phil. 2:12). "Thy people shall be 
willing in the day of thy power" (Ps. 110:3). The regenerate 
views of the understanding and the regenerate feelings of the 
heart fuse to make the complexus of regenerative motives which 
result in regenerate volitions, which are executed as regenerate 
acts. Consequently the regenerate man acting as he sees Christ 
and as he feels concerning him, develops his Christian experience 
freely and spontaneously. 

Conversion — the immediate object of regeneration — is con- 
sequential of the new views, of the new feelings, and of the new 
motives which the sinner has as he contemplates Christ and the 
facts of the gospel ; and the new views are the result of the 
Spirit's illumination of the understanding, and the new feelings 
are the results of the Spirit's quickening of the heart, and the 
new volitions are the results of the Spirit's renewal of the will ; 
and these changes in the faculties of the soul are consequential 
upon that regenerate change of the fundamental and governing 
moral disposition in a region below consciousness and underneath 
all the mental organs. 

2. The far-off and ultimate end of regeneration is the glori- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 323 

fication of God in the salvation of the sinner. God is the chief 
end of himself as well as of all the works of his hand. The final 
purpose of regeneration is to contribute to the declarative glory 
and eternal happiness of the Deity, by whom and for whom all 
things were created, preserved and developed. 

VIII. Consciousness. — Regeneration takes place below 
consciousness. It produces no internal sensation in the soul. No 
man was ever conscious of that instantaneous act of the Holy Spirit 
by which he was made a new creature in Christ Jesus. He cog- 
nizes the fact by inference — by an inference based upon the phe- 
nomena of his new life in Christ. In this mode, he cognizes 
power; he sees the effects and infers the power which is the 
cause of the effects. In this way he knows substance ; he per- 
ceives its attributes and from them infers its reality. In this 
manner he knows the existence of his own soul; he is conscious 
of its acts and phenomena and from them infers the reality of 
his mind. So he apprehends in consciousness the phenomena of 
spiritual views, spiritual feelings and spiritual acts and. from 
these he infers the reality of his passage from moral death to 
moral life. He is not conscious of regeneration ; but he becomes 
aware of it by immediate inference from the fruitage of his 
life. The nature of the tree is revealed by the character of the 
fruit. This is our Lord's rule of judgment : "By their fruits ye 
shall know them." This is the meaning of that great saying of 
his to Nicodemus : "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou 
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, 
and whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit" 
( Jno. 3 :8) . The power of wind is inferred from the phenomena 
of wind ; and so the regenerating power of the Spirit is inferred 
from the phenomena of Christian experience. The changes in 
the intellect, in the sensibility, in the will, in the conduct, in the 
life, are the proofs that the change has occurred. "What man 
knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in 
him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit 
of God" (I Cor. 2:11). The knowledge of the fact of regenera- 
tion is not direct, immediate and conscious, but indirect, mediate 
and inferential. 



324 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

(1) The subconscious nature of regeneration proves that 
this change is effected not by any external means or creature 
agencies but only by the immediate and direct power of the Holy 
Spirit ; for God only can touch the human soul in the region 
which lies beneath consciousness and introduce therein that which 
will manifest itself in consciousness. 

(2) The subconscious nature of regeneration likewise proves 
that infants are susceptible to this change equally with adults, 
for the reason that the change is predicated upon no conscious 
states or acts as preconditions of its taking place. "He shall be 
filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb" (Luke 

1:15)- 

(3) The subconscious nature of regeneration protects the 
doctrine from the vagaries and perversions of mystics and fanatics. 
By this view, all claims of private communion with the Spirit 
set up in such phrases as "enduement with power," "the higher 
life," "the complete surrender," "the infilling of the Spirit," 
"complete sanctification," are barred. All the operations of the 
Spirit are below consciousness and manifest themselves in con- 
sciousness in the most normal and regular manner, without vio- 
lent revolutions and spiritual cataclysms. Every claim to re- 
generation must be evidenced by a sane and balanced and well- 
proportioned reformation and godly conversation. To himself 
and to his fellow Christians and to the world, the subject of this 
change must show it by bringing forth the fruits of the Holy 
Spirit; in this way only can he, or any one, know that the re- 
generate change has occurred. 

IX. Niecessity. — Let no one, however, infer that because 
he is not immediately conscious of the Holy Spirit in the act of 
regenerating his soul there is no real change of this character 
and that it is not necessary to Christian experience that it be 
considered an essential step in the spiritual transformation of the 
soul and its religious life. That all men, without exception, 
need to be changed in their fundamental moral natures is proved 
both by express Scripture and by rational considerations. 

( 1 ) The Redeemer thrice declared to Nicodemus : "Except 
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Jno. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 325 

3:3). "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, 
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" (Gal. 6:15). "Either 
make the tree good, and his fruit good ; or else make the tree 
corrupt, and his fruit corrupt ; for the tree is known by his fruit" 
(Matt. 12:33). "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, 
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit" (Matt. 7:18). 
"Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 
12:14). Such declarations are too categorical for any honest 
mind to deny that the Scriptures teach the necessity of a funda- 
mental and radical change of the moral nature of man. 

(2) Holiness, or conformity to the fundamental moral attri- 
bute of God's nature, is an indispensable condition of harmony 
with God, with self, with the saints, with the moral universe. 
Unless such a moral harmony can be secured; if a sinner were 
transferred to heaven with his tastes and aspirations unaltered ; 
if he carried with him to that blest abode all the impulses and 
appetencies which now mark and determine his life on the earth; 
he would be in uncongenial society, in the midst of uncongenial 
surroundings, breathing an atmosphere which was unpleasant to 
his sense of smell, hearing music which grated upon his ears, 
beholding visions which were repulsive to his eye, mingling in 
communions which were opposed to his desires, a unit in an en- 
vironment with which he was totally out of accord ; he would be 
miserable, for the prime condition of happiness is subjective to 
the soul. For heaven to be heaven to him, he must undergo a 
fundamental change of heart. 

(3) The universal moral condition of the human heart, as 
depraved by nature, and as guilty of actual transgression when 
it reaches the years of discretion and moral action, is precisely 
the opposite of God's holiness, without which no man can live in 
normal and blessed relations with him. As long as the heart 
remains as it is, the governing disposition leads away from God 
and against God. The carnal mind is at emnity with him. A 
radical internal change is therefore necessary in every human 
being, who. hopes or may attempt to live a heavenly life. 

"Better never to have been born at all, than not to be born 
again." 



CHAPTER XXV 

Conversion 

Regeneration is that instantaneous act of grace, in the sub- 
conscious region of the sinful soul, which radically reverses its 
regnant moral nature, illuminating the understanding, sensitizing 
the heart, and potentiating the will. A being, so changed, is 
able to act voluntarily upon the gospel and the things it presents ; 
he now has the power and the temperament necessary to turn to 
Christ as his Saviour. With his enlightened understanding he 
can see Christ and the things of the gospel in a new light; with 
his sensitized heart he can feel the odiousness of sin and the 
desirableness of Christ and the things of the gospel ; and with 
his renewed will he can accept his Saviour and turn away from 
a sinful life. This action on his part is technically denominated 
in theology Conversion. 

I. Scripture Texts. — Concerning conversion, there are 
two classes of Scripture texts: (i) One class represents God as 
converting, or turning, men to himself; (2) The second class 
represents men as converting, or turning, themselves to God. In 
the former, God is the agent and man is the patient ; in the other, 
man is the agent acting upon himself. 

(1) "Turn us, O God of our salvation" (Ps. 85:4). "Draw 
me, we will run after thee" (Song 1:4). "Turn thou me, and 
I shall be turned" (Jer. 31:18). "Turn thou us unto thee, O 
Lord, and we shall be turned" (Lam. 5:21). "No man can come 
unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (Jno. 
6:44). "Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto 
me, except it were given unto him of my Father" (Jno. 6:65). 
In this group of passages, God is unmistakably set forth as the 
converting agent. 

(2) "Turn you at my reproof" (Prov. 1:23). "Turn ye 
unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted" 
(Isa. 31:6). "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and them 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 327 

that turn from transgression in Jacob" (Isa. 59:20). "Repent, 
and turn yourselves from your idols ; and turn away your faces 
from all abominations" (Ezek. 14:6). "Wherefore turn your- 
selves, and live ye" (Ezek. 15:32). "Turn ye, turn ye from your 
evil ways ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. 33 :n). 
"Turn ye even to me with all your heart" (Joel 2:12). In this 
group of passages the sinner is exhorted to convert, or turn, 
himself. 

II. Explanation. — What rational explanation shall we 
make of these two sets of texts, one representing God as the 
agent in conversion, and the other representing man as the agent 
in conversion? Shall we adopt the doctrine of synergism, and 
assume that God and man are the co-agents in conversion? Or 
shall we adopt the explanation that the regenerate man acts 
only as he is acted upon by divine grace? This latter is 
clearly the truth of the matter. 

(1) In regenereation a principle is implanted, a seed is im- 
bedded in the heart; and like the seed buried in the soil, it will 
not germinate and grow and fructify except as it is acted upon 
by other influences than those which are inherent in itself. There 
is latent electricity in the gutta percha rod ; but it must be rubbed by 
the silk or the fur skin before it will yield up the electricity which 
is latent in it. One may be regenerated in infancy, and yet not 
manifest it in conscious conversion until he is even an old man ; 
through all these years, the regenerate principle has remained 
dormant. In the course of time, God exerted his influence, and 
what was latent in the soul in consequence of its regeneration is 
brought to light in conversion. There is never a moment in 
Christian life, never a stage in Christian experience, when the 
sinful soul becomes an agent independent of divine grace. The 
Spirit not only implants, but he quickens what is implanted, 
nurtures it, and brings it to its final perfection. The regenerate 
man acts only as he is acted upon by grace ; the Father draws out 
what the Spirit implants. Hence it can be said that God converts 
the soul, because he elicits its action and exercise; and it can 
also be said that the soul turns itself to the Lord, because it acts 



328 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

according to the laws of its own nature, and responds freely to 
the invocation of grace. There is no co-operation, no co-action, 
no co-agency of God and man in conversion; it has no con- 
causes; the Spirit acts upon the regenerated nature, and under 
that influence the regenerated soul responds freely to the gospel 
call to life and immortality. 

(2) The Scriptures sustain this resolution of this matter. 
"Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power" (Ps. 110:3). 
"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God 
that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" 
(Phil. 2:12, 13). "Working in you that which is well pleasing 
in his sight" (Heb. 13:21). "Not that we are sufficient of our- 
selves to think anything as of ourselves ; but our sufficiency is 
of God" (II Cor. 3:5). We work out what God first works in. 
It is he who regenerates the soul, and it is he who acts upon the 
regenerated soul, turning it to himself in a conscious Christian 
experience. If the divine grace ceased with regeneration, the 
soul would remain quiescent, with the potentialities of a new life 
silent and unexcited and inactive. 

IV. Definition. — Conversion is that act of a regenerated 
soul, excited by the grace of the Holy Spirit, by which it volun- 
tarily and spontaneously turns from sin to Christ as its Saviour. 
It first apprehends a point to which to turn, and then a point 
from which to turn. With its enlightened vision it sees Christ 
and the things of the gospel, and in the light of this vision it 
reflects back upon sin ; it feels the love of the Redeemer shed 
abroad in its sensibility, and, loving him in return, it feels an 
aversion to its own wickedness ; with its quickened will it lays 
hold upon Christ as its Saviour, and then addresses itself to 
the task of reforming its life and conduct in conformity with 
gospel ideals. It is the desirableness of Christ which causes it to 
turn from its sinfulness. 

V. Analysis. — There are then two converting acts: (1) 
Faith, (2) Repentance. 

(1) Faith turns to Christ as the ground of life. It 
abandons self as the ground. In believing, a regenerated sinner 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 329 

changes the foundation and basis of all his hopes and expecta- 
tions. Christ becomes his all in all. Henceforth his song is, 

"Nothing in my hand I bring, 
Simply to thy cross I cling." 

(2) Repentance turns to Christ as the chief end of life. 
It abandons self as an object and aim. Christlikeness is now the 
ideal of the soul. It devotes itself to reformation, to the correc- 
tion of evils, to the forsaking of sin. As faith has reference 
chiefly to justification and the obtainment of the objective bene- 
fits of experimental religion, so repentance has reference chiefly 
to sanctification and the obtainment of the subjective benefits of 
experimental religion. 

What must we do to be saved? The Scriptures everywhere 
answer : Believe and Repent ; accept Christ as the ground of life, 
and accept Christ as the end of life; stand upon him, and live 
for him. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

Saving Faith 

Faith is the first conscious act of the regenerated soul. 

It may follow regeneration immediately ; or it may follow 
regeneration at a longer or shorter time — interval; for a regen- 
erated infant may advance even to old age in its adulthood 
before it becomes consciously converted. But whenever, and how- 
ever, the change effected in the subconscious nature of the sinful 
soul reveals itself in Christian experience, it does so by turning 
to Christ and reposing upon him as its Saviour. Believing in 
Jesus is the initial act of a conscious experience in grace. Hence 
the Scriptures throw the accent of all their prescriptions, com- 
mands, exhortations, and entreaties upon faith ; it is the way to 
begin a Christian career. 

The opened eye spontaneously looks to the cross ; the un- 
stopped ear first hears the voice of its Saviour ; the unloosed 
dumb tongue first calls upon the name of the Lord ; the em- 
powered withered arm stretches out first to him who healed it ; 
the potentiated lame limbs go first to Christ; the revivified soul 
comes out of its sin-grave first to him who called it back to spir- 
itual life ; the new creature in Christ Jesus elects first its Saviour 
as the cause and end of its new aspirations and hopes ; the new 
governing disposition directs the soul first to him who is the Lord 
of life ; the new spiritual appetency turns to the Redeemer first 
as the appropriate food of the soul. The first result of the regen- 
erate change is to give the soul a new teleology, a new chief 
object for which to live, and that is Christ. These are all so 
many figures for setting forth the idea of believing in or upon 
Jesus. 

I. Definition. — What, then, is faith? What does the 
soul do, precisely and definitely, when it believes in Jesus? 
Many definitions have been proposed of faith in the general, and 
of saving faith in particular. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 331 

1. Faith has been defined as "the intuition of eternal 
verities." 

In this definition, faith is generically an "intuition," and 
specifically an intuition of "eternal verities." The word "intui- 
tion" describes the subjective nature of faith, telling us what sort 
of mental exercise it is; and the words "eternal verities" describe 
the objects of faith, telling us precisely what it is that the soul 
sees when it believes. 

But this definition is highly objectionable because of the 
very phraseology in which it is couched, (a) The word "intui- 
tion" is ambiguous. Etymologically, it means to look directly 
upon (in-tueor) ; and if used in this sense, "faith" and 
"sight" could not be differentiated. Then the word "intuition" is 
sometimes used to signify the immediate apprehension of a thing 
in itself ; and if employed in this sense, it would be equal to 
representing faith as immediate and primary knowledge, (b) 
But this definition is further objectionable because it restricts the 
object of faith to "eternal verities." But we may obviously 
believe other kinds of truth than that which is eternal and neces- 
sary. We may believe in temporal and mutable truth as well as 
in eternal and changeless facts. This definition of faith is there- 
fore wrong in its logical genus as well as in its logical species. 
Faith is not a species of "intuition," nor is it an intuition 
specifically of "eternal verities." 

2. Faith is sometimes defined as the organ of the su- 
pernatural. The eye is the organ of vision, and the ear 
is the organ if hearing; in a similar manner, we are told, faith is 
the organ of the supernatural, the organ by which we apprehend 
or cognize that which is above nature. But this definition is 
objectionable: (a) Because it construes faith as one of the 
"organs" of the mind, which is not a happy designation of any 
of the mental faculties, (b) Because by faith we apprehend 
other classes of objects than those which are "supernatural." 
We can believe natural truth as well as supernatural truth. The 
facts of natural science are as cognizable by faith as are the facts 
of supernatural religion, (c) But the definition of faith here 
given is unsatisfactory because it undertakes to make a specific 



33 2 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

class of objects the definitive mark of faith. Any class of objects 
may be the legitimate objects of faith. 

3. Faith has sometimes been defined as the specific 
faculty of apprehending the facts of Christianity. It is 
thus held that regeneration is the creation of a religious faculty, 
by which the truths of the Christian religion are apprehended ; it 
would be thus a Christian grace, peculiar to and distinctive of 
the religion of Christ. But this definition is to be discarded : 
(a) Because it represents faith as a specific faculty, when it is 
just as generic to the soul as is perception or reasoning or mem- 
ory. It is one of the functions of the human intellect, and in no 
proper sense a peculiar and special power of the soul, existing 
for some specific and distinctive office, (b) But if faith were 
distinctively and peculiarly a Christian grace, its exercise would 
be limited to Christians alone ; whereas any man, saint or sinner, 
may believe and does believe, (c) Then, again, if faith were a 
peculiar and specific Christian faculty, its exercises would be 
restricted to the contents of the gospel ; whereas a man may exer- 
cise faith about anything under the sun. A man may believe that 
Caesar crossed the Rubicon or that Cornwallis surrendered at 
Yorktown. 

4. Then faith has been defined as that assent of the 
mind which is stronger than opinion but weaker than 
knowledge. Here the logical genus of the definition is assent 
of the mind and the logical species is a particular degree of assent, 
namely, an assent stronger than opinion but weaker than knowl- 
edge. While generically correct, this definition is specifically 
unacceptable, (a) It is really no definition at all. It would be 
parallel to define a mile as a certain distance longer than across 
my library but shorter than the diameter of the earth. What 
true conception of a mile would such a definition give any man? 
Similarly, what true and adequate conception of faith would it 
give to say that faith is an assent of the mind to something, or 
to anything, which is stronger than opinion but weaker than 
knowledge? The lines of circumscription are not drawn suffi- 
ciently close by the definition, (b) But the definition is unsatis- 
factory because it is not true to fact. Faith may some times be 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 333 

stronger than knowledge and weaker than opinion. There is, 
indeed, a weak faith and a strong faith, a weak opinion and a 
strong opinion, a weak knowledge and 'a strong knowledge. 
Some things we believe feebly and some other things we believe 
with all our might ; there are some opinions so slightly held as to 
be scarcely entitled to rank as opinions at all and there are some 
other exercises of mind put forth with such confidence and bold- 
ness as to constitute a most positive and regulative opinion ; and 
there are some things which we doubtfully know and some other 
things of which we are absolutely certain. We have not got at 
the heart of faith, therefore, when we attempt to differentiate it 
from opinion and knowledge by indicating any general and vague, 
or any specific and definite, degree of mental action towards the 
object. 

5. Faith is sometimes defined as voluntary assent to the 
truth. Here the logical genus of the definition is assent and 
the specific mark, distinguishing faith from all other sorts of 
mental assent, is voluntary. If the mind is voluntarily convinced 
or persuaded that anything is true, then, according to the defini- 
tion, it believes it to be true; but if the mind gives its assent in 
an involuntary or necessary way to the truth of what is proposed, 
then it cannot be said truly to believe that particular proposition. 
But this definition is not correct in its specific notation of what is 
distinctive of faith: (a) Because, in a sense strictly true, the mind 
never yields its assent to anything in any other than a voluntary 
manner. The will is the faculty of mental action, and every species 
of mental action may be correctly described as voluntary ; and, con- 
sequently, if the definition were true, every mental assent would 
be an act of faith, and believing would have to be described as 
the sole sort of mental action, (b) But the definition is not true 
to fact, because we are in a sense compelled to believe some things. 
For example, we must believe in our own existence, in the ex- 
istence of the external world, in what is testified to by competent 
and credible witnesses. In a sense, faith is never optional ; it is 
unnatural and irrational not to believe what is properly certified 
to; a man must believe what he sees with his own eyes. There 
are some knowledges which are not elective, but which are thrust 



334 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

upon us, and we cannot help knowing them ; and there are some 
opinions which are equally forced upon us, and we cannot help 
holding that the weight of evidence is on one side or the other. 
Therefore the effort to make the distinguishing feature of faith 
to consist in its voluntariness breaks down. 

6. Again faith is defined as the persuasion of the truth 
of things unseen. "Now faith is the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. n :i). Here 
the differentiating mark of faith is held to be its peculiar object, 
namely, "things not seen." According to this definition, for the 
thing to be believed in, it must be absent from the mind, it must 
be unseen, (a) But this Scripture text is not a definition of faith ; 
if it were it would settle the question. At most it is but a descrip- 
tion of faith, which is the substance, ground, or body, upon which 
"the things hoped for" by the Christian rest; the evidence, or 
proof of his ultimately realizing the "things not seen." (b) The 
definition, moreover, is too narrow. The "things not seen" do 
not include all the things which may be believed ; for a man may 
truly believe in the existence of the things which are here and 
now present to his vision. Faith may act upon, and accept, the 
things which are both seen and unseen, (c) One may know the 
things which he hopes for and the things which are not seen. 
He may know the existence of the wealth which he hopes to 
secure, and he may know the existence of the foreign city which 
he has not seen. These objects, "things hoped for" and "things 
unseen," do not, therefore, define distinctively and specifically the 
nature of faith. 

7. Then faith is defined by some as that assent of the 
mind which is founded upon feeling. In this definition, feel- 
ing is employed as the definitive factor in faith ; it is held to be a 
feeling conviction of the truth of what is presented. If the mind 
should be coldly convinced of the truth of anything, then that 
state of mind could not, according to the definition, be held to 
be a believing state of mind, (a) But this definition is unsatis- 
factory because its psychology is erroneous. Feeling is not the 
cause of intellectual action ; we first cognize, then we feel, and 
then we act. This is the law of mental life and operation; and 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 335 

consequently to interpret feeling as the cause of the acceptance of 
anything as true is but to reverse cause and effect, (b) And 
further, there may be as much feeling, or as little feeling, at- 
tendant upon an act of knowledge, or even upon a mere opinion, 
as upon an act of faith. Feeling is a consequent and not the 
cause of faith. 

8. Finally faith is defined as assent of the mind founded 
upon testimony. This is the true definition. In it assent 
is the logical genus and upon testimony the specific differen- 
tiation. We assent to the truth of any proposition or the exist- 
ence of anything because we see it with our own eyes, or because 
of some demonstration made to our intelligence, or because of 
the testimony or authority of some other competent and credible 
persons. We know wdiat we perceive, or re-perceive, or reason 
out for ourselves ; we believe what comes to us upon the witness 
and authority of others; testimony is the specific cause of faith. 
I see the books in my library with my own eyes ; and I therefore 
know that they are there. I construe my eyes as witnesses which 
are trustworthy when they certify to the existence of the books 
in the shelves ; I therefore believe that the books exist. The 
object, the books, is the same in both cases ; in each instance my 
mind assents to the fact that the books exist; but in one case the 
assent has been caused by perception, and, therefore, I know 
that the books are there ; but in the other case my mind has given 
its assent under the influence of my eyes, construed as witnesses ; 
therefore I believe that the books are there. For another 
illustration: I saw Jones steal the cow, and therefore I know he 
did it; but as a juror in the court house, I heard ten good and 
honest men testify that Jones stole the cow, and I therefore be- 
lieve that he did it. If there were any weakness in the ground 
of knowledge, or in the testimony, I would only have an opinion, 
strong or weak, as to Jones' theft of the cow. Here then is the 
specific and logical differentiating mark of faith, namely, it is 
that assent, or conviction, or persuasion, of the mind which is 
caused by testimony. When we know, we get the fact for our- 
selves ; but when we believe, the fact is given to us by somebody 
else. When we know, we are self-dependent ; when we believe, 



336 Christian Salvati&n-^lts Doctrine and Experience 

we are dependent upon some other, either some real or construc- 
tive witness. 

It does not matter, therefore, what the object may be; — 
whether eternal verities, or the supernatural and divine, or the 
contents of the Christian revelation, or the things hoped for, or 
the things unseen, or the things which excite emotion, or the 
commonplace facts of life, or the phenomena of natural science, 
or the more erudite principles of philosophy, or the multifarious 
matters of history; — whatever the object, when we accept it upon 
the ground and for the reason that it is adequately certified to 
by either real or constructive witnesses, we believe; we commit 
ourselves upon the ground of somebody else's observation or 
authority, and rest our acceptance and judgment upon another 
than ourselves. Testimony, in the widest sense of this word, is 
the cause of our mental acceptance. 

Our faith is strong or weak, our conviction is clear and 
emphatic or murky and hesitant, our acceptance is positive and 
firm or nervous and questioning, our persuasion is decided and 
unwavering or feeble and quivering, according as the testimony 
to our minds ranks high or low in competency and credibility. 
In other words, the value of the testimony, as weighed in our 
minds, determines the degree of faith which we put in what is 
communicated. 

II. Historical Faith. — Let us suppose the object presented 
to be the contents of the Christian revelation, the facts and truths 
of the Bible ; let us suppose the testimony to be that of the Church 
and uninspired men, as they have come down the centuries de- 
livering to us these Scriptures as the revelation of God to the 
world ; let us suppose that one hears this report from out of the 
past, setting forth the evidences upon which all biblical statements 
and claims rest; let us suppose that such an one yields to this 
historical testimony and gives his credence to these Scriptures 
as the very word of God, teaching the exact truth about all things 
upon which they speak ; he would be a believer in the Bible and 
the Bible's Redeemer, but his faith would rest upon the testimony 
of men. A preacher, taking his pulpit as a witness-stand, might 
so utter the testimonies of the past as to convince his hearers of 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 337 

the divinity of the Scriptures and of the historicity of Christ as 
the Saviour of sinners ; then this hearer would believe as the 
men of the village believed the story of the Samaritan woman 
who told them about the wonderful person whom she had met at 
Jacob's well, but his faith would have no other and no different 
sort of basing than that of his faith in the existence of the foreign 
city of which he had no experimental and personal knowledge. 
This is what theologians call historical, or non-saving faith ; called 
historical, because the facts of the Christian religion are received 
upon the testimony of history, upon the same sort of testimony 
upon which we receive the facts that belong to the national career 
of Great Britain or any other country. 

And the production of this historical faith in the facts of 
the Scriptures constitutes a very important if not the principal 
part of the duty of Christian ministers and Christian disciples. 
"Ye are my witnesses." Then, as witnesses, let them prepare 
themselves and deliver testimony so cogent and so intelligent and 
so consistent and so effective as will constrain men of the world 
to accept the facts of the Christian revelation as true. No wit- 
ness is entitled to bungle his cause by delivering incoherent and 
inaccurate testimony. A Christian witness ought to be thoroughly 
informed and skilful in delivering his testimony upon a subject 
of such moment and have it as his chief object so to tell the story 
of the Redeemer as to command the assent of his hearers 
to the truthfulness of what he has to say. The illiterate and unin- 
formed witness for the Saviour's cause in the 1 world is at the 
bottom of much of the world's historical unbelief of the gospel. 

III. Saving Faith. — But let us introduce upon the wit- 
ness-stand of the auditor's soul another witness who utters him- 
self upon the same subject; who delivers himself concerning 
Christ and the contents of the Christian revelation. This new 
witness is the Holy Spirit; and he testifies to a regenerated 
soul that Christ is its Saviour; and upon the testimony of this 
witness the sinner believes that Christ is his Savour and cries 
out, "my Lord and my God." This is saving faith. It is the 
acceptance of Christ, not upon the ground of the testimony of 



338 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

history, not upon the ground of any man or set of men, but upon 
the ground of the testimony of the Holy Spirit. 

Faith, any sort of faith, is the assent of the mind to 
anything upon the ground of some sort of testimony : His- 
torical Faith is the acceptance of the facts of the Christian 
revelation upon the ground of the testimony of men, living and 
dead ; Saving Faith is the acceptance of Christ and the facts 
of the Christian revelation upon the ground of the testimony of 
the Holy Ghost. 

IV. Schema. — But I can better exhibit the nature of 
saving faith by indicating (1) its efficient cause, (2) its material 
cause, (3) its instrumental cause, (4) its formal cause, and (5) 
its final cause. 

V. Efficient Cause. — We have seen that the grace of 
the Spirit, operating in the subconscious region of the soul, 
changes its governing disposition, or moral appetency, or ruling 
desire, creating the potentialities of both faith and repentance; 
but that these potentialities may lie dormant for a longer or 
shorter time ; and that they will continue to lie thus dormant 
until another act of grace calls them into conscious exercise. The 
seed lies in the ground until quickened by the forces of nature 
from without acting upon the germ which is inherent ; and the 
intuitive principles of the intellect concreated and implanted as 
regulative in the mind by the hand of the Maker, are latent until 
called into conscious exercise by some experiential conditions ; 
even so the regenerate principle lies quiescent in the human 
soul until some special and appropriate exercise of the Holy 
spirit evokes it into conscious exercise. Grace, therefore, termi- 
nating upon the regenerated spirit, elicits faith in Christ. Conse- 
quently grace is the efficient cause of saving faith, and faith is 
truly and properly characterised as one of the "graces" of the 
Spirit. 

But there is an important difference between that exercise 
of grace which results in regeneration and that which results in 
faith. In producing regeneration the Spirit exercises a creative 
power and brings into being a new disposition, which did not 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 339 

exist before, a power analogous to a force which produces a 
physical effect in a body; but in producing faith the Spirit acts 
as one person upon another person, persuading him to exercise 
trust in Christ. Regenerating grace is therefore dynamic; be- 
lieving grace is vocative. Regenerating grace is almighty ; but the 
grace of faith is suasory. In regenerating, the Spirit is a super- 
natural power ; in producing faith, he is a witness at the bar of 
the regenerated soul. In regeneration the Spirit acts upon a 
patient ; in faith he acts upon a personal agent. In regeneration 
the soul is dead in trespasses and sins ; in faith the soul is alive 
in Christ Jesus. In regeneration grace is, therefore, dynamic and 
creative ; in producing faith grace is testificatory, if I may coin 
this word for my needs. 

In causing the regenerated soul to believe in Jesus the Holy 
Spirit does not apply his almighty and resistless strength, and 
force the sinner to accept the Redeemer ; but, on the contrary, 
he exercises an enlightening, suasory and vocative influence upon 
the regenerated soul and induces it, according to the laws of its 
own rational nature, freely to embrace the Redeemer as he is 
offered in the gospel. He, therefore, by the gospel and all the 
instrumentalities of conversion which he employs, excites the 
regenerated soul to accept the Saviour. The soul, in doing so, 
acts most freely and spontaneously, according to the governing 
law of its new regenerate disposition; but without the witnessing 
influences of the Spirit the soul would not exercise conscious 
faith at all. It is, therefore, strictly and exactly true that grace 
is the efficient cause of saving faith. Until he takes the witness- 
stand and testifies, the regenerate nature will remain dormant and 
inactive, having potentialities, but not the activities of a Christian 
life. 

While, therefore, the sinner does the believing, grace excites 
to the action. While the sinner does the seeing, it is regenerating 
grace which sensitizes the optic nerve ; and then there is a second 
exercise of grace which causes the soul to open its spiritual eye 
and look upon Christ as presented in the gospel. While the 
renewed sinner does the hearing, it is regenerating grace which 
restores the auditory nerve ; and then there is a second exercise of 



340 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

grace which causes the quickened ear to hear the gospel proclama- 
tion. While the sinner stretches out his own arms to the Saviour, 
it is regenerating grace which empowers the withered arm ; and a 
second exercise of grace which causes the free agent to reach out 
his arms to the Redeemer. While it is the sinner who comes to 
Christ under the gospel call, it is regenerating grace which po- 
tentiates the palsied legs; and a second act of grace which causes 
him to exercise his new strength and arise and go to his Saviour. 
While it is the sinner who responds to the call, it is regenerating 
grace which quickens him in his sin-grave ; and a second exercise 
of grace which causes him to come forth out of the sinful tomb 
and walk as the disciple of Christ. As the sinner could not 
believe without regeneration, it is equally true that he would not 
believe without the suasory influences of grace. If he were 
regenerated, and grace should cease at that point, he would never 
venture upon his Saviour but remain forever with the poten- 
tialities of new life implanted within him, but without the con- 
scious exercise of his new spiritual powers. Hence it is strictly 
and literally true that grace is the efficient cause of saving faith, 
but grace as a vocative, as distinguished from a dynamic, power. 

"The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to be- 
lieve to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of 
Christ in their hearts." This quotation clearly proves that the 
Westminster Assembly held that grace was the efficient or pro- 
ducing cause of saving faith. 

That the regenerated sinner believes under the stimulating in- 
fluence of the gracious Spirit, and that saving faith is truly and 
properly a "grace," is proved by the following citations from the 
Scriptures : 

"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent 
me draw him ; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is writ- 
ten in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Every 
man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father 
cometh unto me" (Jno. 6:44, 45). "As many as were ordained 
to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48). "Therefore it is of faith, 
that it might be by grace" (Rom. 4:16). "And my speech and 
my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 341 

in demonstration of the Spirit and of power ; that your faith 
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" 
(I Cor. 2:4, 5). "The god of this world hath blinded the minds 
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of 
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.... 
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath 
shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:4, 6). "The 
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness 
goodness, and faith" (Gal. 5:22). "For by grace are ye saved 
through faith ; and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God' 
(Eph. 2:8). "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith 
from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 6:23) 
"For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to 
believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake" (Phil. 1 129) 
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb 
12:2). "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye 
know all things" (I Jno. 2:20). "For this is the witness of 
God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the 
Son of God hath the witness in himself" (I Jno. 5:9). 

Every person who believes must be "drawn" by the Father, 
and be "taught" of God ; they who believe must be "ordained to 
eternal life" ; the religious experience which is by faith is by 
"grace" ; the faith of the Corinthians stood in the "power of 
God" ; those who believe not have had their minds "blinded by 
the god of this world," and they must consequently be opened by 
God ; in the list of the fruits of the Spirit is "faith" ; faith is the 
"gift of God" ; faith with love is "from God" ; to believe on 
Christ is "given" ; Jesus is the "author and finisher of faith." 

V. Material Cause. — The object of saving faith is Christ 
as he is set forth in the gospel. It is to him, as the Saviour 
of the soul, that the Spirit bears witness ; and it is to him that 
the soul yields itself under the spell of the Spirit's testimony. 
The opened eye is directed to Christ, and the soul turns to him 
and embraces him as its personal Redeemer. Under the influence 
of the Spirit the regenerated sinner accepts him and rests upon 
him and trusts in him and looks to him alone for salvation. 



34 2 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

I am careful to emphasize the phrase as set forth in the 
gospel, because there is a class of writers who insist upon the 
Christ-idea as the proper object of saving faith. This type 
of writers put all other religions into comparison with the Chris- 
tian religion and claim that they find the idea of salvation running 
through them all, which differs not essentially, but only inci- 
dentally, from the Messiah of the gospels. The idea of a Christ, 
we are told, is more clearly and explicitly set forth in the Chris- 
tian revelation than in the Vedas, or the books of Confucius, 
or in the Koran of Mohammed, or in the sacred literature of 
other religions, or in the vague and unwritten teachings of the 
lowest fetishisms, yet the essential idea of a Christ is in all and 
every form of religion known to the race of mankind. The great 
desideratum, therefore, we are told, is not faith in Jesus of Naza- 
reth, as he is exhibited in the Bible, but faith in the ideal Christ, 
however beautifully he may be exhibited in the Christian Scrip- 
tures or however crudely and grossly he may be presented in 
the lowest forms of religion known to earth. All religions are at 
bottom one, only differing in the fulness and clearness and com- 
pleteness with which they respectively set forth the ideal Saviour. 
Faith in the fictitious Christ of heathen religions, or in the imagi- 
nary and ideal Christ of poetic and fanciful literature, or in the 
Christ of art, is at bottom one and the same. The apprehension 
of the Christ-idea is the only essential thing. 

But if it were granted that a Christie thought threads all 
religions, the object of saving faith is not the Christ of Buddhism 
or of Brahmanism, of Confucianism or Zoroastrianism, of Mo- 
hammedanism or of Christian Science or any other modern 
vagary; nor is the object of saving faith the Christ of poetry and 
art, of literature and idealism. Jesus, looking the Jews in the 
face who piously believed in a Messiah yet to come and different 
from himself, said, "If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in 
your sins" (Jno. 8:24). Faith in the Christ of imagination, or 
in the Christ of tradition, or in some Christ yet to come, will 
not serve to save the soul. It is not a pious attitude of mind and 
heart which is required, but faith in Jesus of Nazareth, the 
veritable historical person which is exhibited in the gospel. Hence 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 343 

the Bible must ever go with the preacher in order to show the 
precise and definite Christ which must be believed in, accepted, 
loved and obeyed, in order to the salvation of the soul. The 
object of saving faith is the Christ of the Christian Scriptures; 
there can be no supposititious, constructive, imaginary, fictitious, 
or ideal Redeemer, to whom the soul can be committed with 
safety. 

The Scriptures are precisely and accurately the record of 
the testimony which God has given concerning his Son. "This 
is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that 
believeth on the Son, hath the witness in himself ; he that be- 
lieveth not God hath made him a liar ; because he believeth not 
the record that God gave of his Son" (I Jno.5:io, 11). The 
Redeemer is the subject and the center of the entire Christian 
revelation, from the protevangelium of Genesis to the last amen 
of Revelation. As all the roads in Italy are said to lead to Rome, 
so all the forms and parts of the Christian Scriptures center upon 
Christ. The Bible is but a means to an end — a means for the 
revelation of Christ as the end. But for the Redeemer all biblical 
histories would be ancient history ; all biblical poetry would be 
but so much vapid sentimentalizing; all the prophecies would be 
but hieroglyphical enigmas; all its gospels would be but so many 
fictions and legends ; and all its epistles would be effete doctrinal- 
izing. It is the fact that Christ is the living heart of the Bible 
that makes the book immortal and prevents it finding its sepulchre 
in the antiquarian's shop. Christ is the personal Word, and the 
Bible is the impersonal Word. Translate the Bible into a person, 
and that person would be the Redeemer; convert the Redeemer 
into a book, and that book would be the Bible. The book sets 
forth and interprets the person ; the person incarnates and illus- 
trates the book. The one is the commentary of which the other 
is the text. The one is the form of which the other is the sub- 
stance and the life. To accept the book and reject the person 
would be to exercise a dead faith, a faith which rests upon the 
body while denying the soul, a faith which accepts the shadow 
while it discards the substance. 



344 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

It is this Christ as he is set forth in this book that is the 
object of saving faith. Upon the testimony of the Spirit, de- 
livered in the private chambers of the soul, the regenerated sinner 
receives and rests upon him alone for salvation. Christ without 
the Bible would be an unknown person ; the Bible without Christ 
would be but a book, having only the influences of a book. 

Faith in the Bible as a divine revelation is but fides 
generalis; but faith in Christ is fides specialis, or fides sal- 
vatica. In believing the regenerated soul commits itself, not 
to the book, but to the person set forth in the book. 

That Christ is the object of saving faith is declared through- 
out the Scriptures in a very catholic, persistent and fundamental 
manner. 

"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become 
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (Jno. 
1:12). "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life" (Jno. 3 :i6). "He that believeth on the Son hath 
everlasting life ; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see 
life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (Jno. 3:36). "I am 
the bread of life ; He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and 
he that believeth on me shall never thirst" (Jno. 6:35). "If ye 
believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins" (Jno. 8:24). 
"He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his 
belly shall flow rivers of living water" (Jno. 7 138) . "To him 
give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever 
believeth in him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43). 
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" 
(Acts 16:31). "The righteousness of God which is by faith of 
Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe" (Rom. 
3:22). "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through 
faith in his blood" (Rom. 3:25). "And be found in him, not 
having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that 
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is 
of God by faith" (Phil. 3 :g). "I live by the faith of the Son of 
God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 345 

VI. Instrumental Cause. — The witness of the Spirit 
being the efficient cause, and Christ as set forth in the gospel 
being the material cause, of saving faith ; what is the instrumental 
cause? I answer, Every means by which man is brought into 
connection with the gospel. 

"The Spirit maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, 
of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting 
sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through 
faith unto salvation." 

For any object to be seen it must be brought into the range 
of vision ; for any sound to be heard it must be within the range 
of hearing ; and for anything to be believed it must be presented 
to the mind. What lies beyond the reach of the faculties, out of 
all relation to their powers and operations, cannot become an 
object of faith. For the soul to believe in or upon Christ the 
Redeemer must be presented, in some way, to the soul. The 
Christian Scriptures are God's revelation of Christ; and they 
are the only vehicle which can bring him within the horizon of 
the human soul ; and reading, and especially preaching, the Scrip- 
tures is the only mode of communicating a knowledge of the 
Redeemer to mankind to be received or rejected. Hence every 
means which is employed to impart a knowledge of the Scriptures, 
every agency used in circulating the Bible, every instrumentality 
employed in making the world familiar with its contents, is an 
instrument in the Spirit's hands for influencing the regenerated 
sinner to accept and trust in Christ. 

It may be the very text of the Scriptures as read in the 
Hebrew, Greek, or English, or some other language; it may be 
the sermon setting forth a larger or a shorter account of some 
part of the Scriptures by exposition, argumentation, illustration 
or exhortation, or in some other sense ; it may be the tract or the 
book which deals with some phase of Scripture truth ; it may 
be the newspaper press, from day to day, week to week, month 
to month, or year to year, presenting facts and truths about Christ 
and the Christian religion ; it may be the Sabbath School teacher, 
the parent, the friend, who utters some word or more, which 
brings Christ to the mind; all the multitudinous agencies which 



346 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the Church and disciples of Christ have devised for making men 
acquainted with the Redeemer are but the instrumentalities which 
the sovereign Spirit may employ, with which to induce the soul 
to exercise its regenerated powers in believing in the Saviour. 

"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be 
saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not 
believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have 
not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? and how 
shall they preach except they be sent ? .... So then faith cometh 
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:13-17). 

In this splendid Pauline sorites, a sinner must call on the name 
of the Lord in order to be saved ; he must believe in Christ in order 
to call upon him ; he must hear of Christ in order to believe in 
him ; he must have a preacher, or its equivalent, in order to hear. 
Reversing the order of statement, and going from the bottom of 
the text to its top ; preaching is in order to hearing ; hearing is 
in order to believing ; believing is in order to calling ; and calling 
is in order to salvation. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and 
hearing by the word of God." The "hearing" in the text is not 
to be restricted to cognizing Christ through the ear only; but it 
is the most prominent and common way of learning of Christ and 
is clearly used as inclusive of all those modes by which the 
Christ of the Bible is brought to the attention of sinners. 

Of all the instrumentalities employed for the production 
of saving faith, preaching is the most conspicuous and highly 
honored. "After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom 
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to 
save them that believe" (I Cor. 1 123). He established his Church 
in the earth and gave it a sacred ministry and directed them to 
"go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" ; 
and under this solemn and definitive commission his servants 
"went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with 
them, and confirming the word with signs following" (Mark 
16:15, 20). Preaching the gospel is, therefore, the pre-emi- 
nently ordained means of showing men the Christ in whom they 
are to believe in order to be saved. While what is read with 
the eye in the pages of sacred Scripture truly presents Christ, 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 347 

and may be blessed of the Spirit to conversion, it is the preach- 
ing of the gospel, falling upon the ear of the regenerated soul, 
infused with the emotion and personal power of the preacher, 
which is the stated and ordinary means employed by the Spirit 
in calling faith into exercise. 

The preacher, having learned out of the Bible some part 
of the testimony which God has therein given concerning his 
Son, our Saviour, with all the skill, emotion and unction which he 
can command, repeats that testimony in the ear of the sinner; at 
the same time the Spirit utters the story in the inner chambers of 
the soul with his demonstration and power and illumination ; 
and upon this joint witnessing of the preacher and the Spirit — 
the preacher delivering his in the outer ear and the Spirit de- 
livering his confirmatory testimony in the inner ear — the soul 
hears, believes, is persuaded, embraces the Saviour and is con- 
verted. 

How unspeakably wicked, in the light of this exposition 
of the matter, for any preacher to testify to the soul any other 
thing but that truth which is contained in the gospel ! How 
lacking in intuition and perception is that preaching which fails 
to find Christ in every verse and passage of the Scriptures or 
stops short of bringing the sinner into his Redeemer's presence ! 
The object of preaching is to put the Saviour before the sin- 
ner's eyes, so that when the Spirit does open them, there, in im- 
mediate vision, is the saving object for the eye to rest upon. It 
is simply criminal, even as it is a genuine deception, for a Chris- 
tian minister to present anything to the sinful soul but the Re- 
deemer. 

Here is the great reason and imperative necessity- for car- 
rying the gospel to the heathen. Suppose, just for supposition's 
sake, that the Spirit should open the eyes of some man buried 
in the depths of darkest heathenism ; pray, upon what would the 
opened eye look? What object would appear to his vision? In 
what would he believe? There would be nothing present for 
him to look upon. Hence the necessity of the missionary car- 
rying the story of the cross to the ends of the earth ; the gospel 
is the Spirit's means, not of regenerating, but of producing faith. 



348 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Where there is no gospel, there is, and there can be, no saving 
faith. The glory of the human ministry is to carry the Redeemer, 
enclosed within the lids of the book, around and about and 
abroad in the earth as those who wait upon the Spirit of God. 

VII. Formal Cause. — The witness of the Spirit being the 
efficient cause of saving faith, Christ as set forth in the Scrip- 
tures being the direct object, or material cause of it and the 
reading and preaching of the gospel being the instrumental cause ; 
what is the formal nature of saving faith? This brings us to the 
very heart of the matter. It makes inquisition for that element 
in saving faith which specifically differentiates it from all other 
forms of belief. We are now in quest for the very essence of 
that act which unites the soul with Christ, and results in its 
salvation. 

The formal cause of saving faith is trust in Christ. 

Upon the testimony of the Spirit, the regenerate soul re- 
ceives Jesus of Nazareth, as he is exhibited in the Scriptures, and 
rests upon him alone as its Saviour. It commits itself to him; 
it reposes upon him, it confides in him, it surrenders itself to 
him, it trusts in him. Trust is the inner, formal nature of the 
faith which saves and sanctifies the soul. 

The juryman may believe the witness in the box without 
delivering himself into the hands of the witness ; the student 
may believe his professor without giving himself over to his 
teacher ; the astronomer may believe the Copernican science, but 
he does not repose his person upon the stars and the heavenly 
bodies ; the mathematician may believe the axioms of mathe- 
matics, but he does not trust in them; but when a soul believes 
in Jesus, it lays itself bodily in his arms. 

In the effort to explicate saving faith, the Latin theologians 
were accustomed to treat it as complex and resolved it into three 
elements: (i) notitia, knowledge; (2) assensus, assent; (3) 
fiducia, trust. The reading and the preaching of the Scriptures 
made the sinner acquainted with the things to be believed, enlight- 
ening the understanding as to the objects of faith, thus contrib- 
uting the notitia of faith. The whole body of the evidences of 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 349 

Christianity being brought to bear upon the will causes the soul 
to assent to the whole scheme of redemption and thus brings 
into being the factor called assensus. But grace operating upon 
the regenerated spirit persuades and enables it to trust in Christ 
as a personal Saviour and thus brings into existence the factor 
of fiducia. This fiduciary element constitutes specifically the 
formal nature of saving faith. Reading and preaching, and all 
other modes of coming into a knowledge of Christ, make the soul 
acquainted with the person to be trusted; the evidences and proofs 
of Christianity make the soul see, recognize and assent to the 
fact that Christ is the Saviour of sinners ; but the Holy Spirit, 
by his inner testifying and suasory influences, causes the soul, 
not only to know that Christ is a Saviour and to consent to the 
fact that he is truly and certainly the Saviour, but to commit it- 
self voluntarily and consciously to him as its Saviour. The 
notitial element apprehends Christ as a Saviour; the assensive 
element apprehends him as the Saviour; but the fiducial element, 
adopting the cry of Thomas, apprehends him as "my Lord and 
my God," as the soul's personal Saviour. 

Romanists, holding that faith is nothing more than blind as- 
sent to the teachings of the Scriptures as they are delivered by 
the Church, necessarily deny the fiducial element, deny that trust 
enters into and constitutes the very essence of saving faith. They 
have fabricated a distinction between explicit and implicit faith. 
Explicit faith is assent to so much of Scripture as the believer 
understands ; while implicit faith is his assent to the things which 
the ecclesiastic calls upon him to receive. Hence the ignorant 
peasant can implicitly believe in a Latin sermon, not one word of 
which is intelligible to him. If a man therefore exercise ex- 
plicit faith in the general proposition of the gospel, he therein 
exercises faith in, or assents to, everything embraced in it. If a 
man has explicit faith in, or in the general assents to, the proposi- 
tion that the Church is an infallible teacher, he therein exercises 
implicit or virtual faith in every doctrine of the Church, albeit 
he may never have so much as heard of a multitude of them. 

But inasmuch as trust is the essence of saving faith, the ig- 
norant man who has been taught that Jesus is the Saviour of sin- 



350 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

ners can trust him with the salvation of his soul without un- 
derstanding all the mysteries of the incarnation or the occult 
symbols of the Apocalypse ; because he is trusting within his 
knowledge. What lies beyond knowledge lies beyond faith. A 
man may believe when told that a Latin sentence means this or 
that, but he is exercising faith in what he is told and not in the 
Latin which he does not understand. Simple, elementary, naked 
saving faith is trust in that Redeemer who is revealed in Scrip- 
tures ; the problem thereafter is to instruct, edify and enlighten 
this primary and infantile faith. 

Campbellites, holding that faith is a mere affirmative judg- 
ment of the understanding passed upon the truth upon the ground 
of evidence, also deny the fiducial element in saving faith. They 
of this way of thinking emphasize only the notitial and assensive 
elements in faith. But if this were correct, before any person 
could become an intelligent disciple of Christ he would have to 
be a graduate in apologetics and able to sift all the reasonings 
and arguments and sophisms of sceptics and critics. Conversion 
would logically be restricted to the educated and the learned ; 
the ignorant and unskilled could only put their faith in Christ 
upon the certification of preachers and others in whom they 
might have confidence, and fallible men would thus become the 
ground and authority of their faith. A denial of the fiducial 
element in it renders religion impractical for the ignorant and un- 
learned. But admit that trust is the essence of the faith that 
saves and sanctifies the soul, and then the most ignorant and 
unlettered and obtuse may have it read to them out of the Bible 
that Jesus is the Saviour of sinners, and the Spirit of God may 
use that simple presentation of the Redeemer as a means for 
illuminating the eye of the poor, ignorant creature and leading 
it to commit its soul to Christ for time and eternity. Christianity 
then becomes a simple religion and absolutely practical for all 
classes of men, ranking from the most profound and scholarly 
to the densest illiterate. But the scholar believes only sb far as 
the objects of faith are brought into the range of his wide horizon 
and the peasant likewise believes only so far as the object of 
his faith is brought within the field of his vision. The object 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine' and Experience 351 

of preaching and study is for an educative discipline and is de- 
signed ever more to bring other truths concerning Christ into 
the field of cognition of each, that faith may be more and more 
enlightened and informed. Every believer is under obligation to 
grow in knowledge. 

Some orthodox theologians have held that trust is to be re- 
garded as an immediate and invariable consequence of saving 
faith, rather than as its very constitutive essence. But if we 
think of grace as the efficient cause and the Bible as the material 
cause and preaching as the instrumental cause, putting these 
phases of the subject by the side of each other it seems clear 
that trust is the formal, internal, definitive, essential element in 
saving faith, the factor which constitutes its uniqueness. The 
fiduciary nature of faith is proved by the following facts drawn 
from the Scriptures : 

(1) The lexicographers tell us that the idea of trust is en- 
tombed in the very Greek words for faith — pistis y faith, and 
pisteuein, to believe. And it is from the Latin fides that we get 
our English words fiduciary and fiducial. Words never quite lose 
the aroma of their etymology. 

(2) The uniform and single instruction given in Scripture 
as to the way of life is expressed in the words believe in or on 
Christ, while the invariable pre-condition of salvation is said to 
be faith in or on Christ. And to believe in or on a person neces- 
sarily implies trust in that person. 

"Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life" (Jno. 3:16). "He that believeth on him is not 
condemned" (Jno. 3:18). "He that believeth on me, as the 
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living 
water" (Jno. 7:38). "Many believed in the Lord" (Acts 9:42). 
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 
16:31). "We have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be 
justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law" 
(Gal. 2:16). "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus 
Christ" (Gal. 3:26). "From a child thou hast known the holy 
Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (II. Tim. 3:15). 



352 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

(3) There is a class of phrases in the Scriptures which are 
synonymous with "believing in Christ," which clearly import a 
trusting in him. For example : "Receiving Christ," "looking to 
Christ," "flying to Christ for refuge," "coming to Christ," "com- 
mitting" one's self to him. These all designate the act of saving 
faith, and manifestly imply trust as the essential element in it. 

"As many as received him, to them gave he power to be- 
come the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" 
(Jno. 1:12). "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the 
Lord, so walk ye in him" (Col. 2:6). "Look unto me, and be 
ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is 
none else" (Isa. 45:22). "As Moses lifted up the serpent in 
the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up ; that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal 
life" (Jno. 3:14, 15). "Who have fled for refuge to lay hold 
upon the hope set before us" (Heb. 6:18). "Come unto me, all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 
11 128). "He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that 
believeth on me shall never thirst" (Jno. 6:35). "I know whom 
I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that 
which I have committed unto him against that day" (II. Tim. 
1 :i2). 

VIII. Final Cause. — The final cause of any thing relates 
to its end, purpose, service. When, therefore, inquest is made 
for the final cause of saving faith, inquiry is made for those 
effects which follow upon this grace. It is so cardinal in the 
Christian system that it is difficult to keep from making the 
omnibus declaration that absolutely all the phenomena of Chris- 
tian experience are but the fruitage of this radical virtue of the 
Christian religion. But the theologian must always be as specific 
as possible and enumerate the principal things which follow upon 
the exercise of this grace. 

1. Union with Christ. 

In election God nominates the beneficiaries of the atone- 
ment and names to himself the persons who are to be the sub- 
jects of his grace in the fulness of his time, and this election 
confers upon such persons all their legal rights and privileges 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 353 

and title to all the Christian benefits. In the covenant of grace 
which he makes with the Redeemer he appoints the human bene- 
ficiaries, and through this appointment they come into contractual 
relations with God and so obtain legal standing in his favour. 
In regeneration these persons are given such a spiritual nature 
and disposition as puts them in sympathy with the Saviour, which 
makes the relations between them hearty and congenial. But 
when these persons actually exercise faith they therein and thereby 
seize upon their inheritances and enter consciously and experi- 
mentally upon their rights and enjoyments. In believing, they 
experimentally clasp hands with the Redeemer; they join with 
him; they enter into his fellowship and partake of his bless- 
ings. As the coupling pin connects the railroad cars to the loco- 
motive which draws them ; so faith is the connective of the be- 
liever and his Redeemer, who is the power which draws him 
from earth to heaven in due time and by the ordained course 
of grace. 

Rowland Hill was fond of singing : 

"And when I am to die, 
Receive me, I'll cry, 
For Jesus hath loved me, 
I cannot tell why; 
But this I can find, 
We two are so joined 
He'll not be in glory 
And leave me behind." 

• The covenant of grace was not made with believers, but 
with Christ as their federal head and representative ; and by 
faith they become partakers of Christ and so parties to this 
covenant and all its blessings. So do they enter into his fellow- 
ship and become sharers and joint heirs with him. Upon the 
legal principle, qui facit per alium facit per se, they have a com- 
munity with him in his covenant standing, rights, immunities and 
benefits. Forensically they are "complete in him." His right- 
eousness and the righteousness of his Father, become theirs. 
They partake of the transforming and transfiguring power of his 



354 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

grace and Spirit; they enter into his labors, sufferings, tempta- 
tions and death and resurrection. His obedience becomes theirs ; 
his standing before God becomes theirs ; his justification and 
glorification becomes theirs. Faith communalizes the life of the 
believer and Christ. They are the beneficiaries and co-partners 
of all his mediatorial rewards. Faith thus puts the Saviour be- 
neath the believer's feet as the ground upon which he stands 
and as the cause and reason for every blessing of grace which 
he receives in time and eternity. Hence every prayer he makes 
pleads "for Jesus sake" and every blessing he receives he credits 
to his Redeemer. All his benefits are conveyed to him in Christ, 
and on account of Christ. He is the argument of all his petitions, 
the ground of all his hopes and the theme of all his praises. "That 
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" (Eph. 3:17). 

The union of Christ and believers is of two kinds: (1) 
mystical, (2) federal. The first is subjective, internal, vital; the 
second is objective, external, pactional. The bond of the mystical 
union is the Holy Spirit; the bond of the federal union is faith. 
In the first, the Spirit unites with the believer ; in the second, the 
believer unites with Christ. In the first, God grasps the believer 
to himself ; in the second, the believer grasps God to himself. In 
the first, the Saviour goes out to the believer and clasps him to 
his bosom ; in the second, the believer goes out to the Saviour 
and clasps him to his bosom. So Christ embraces the believer 
and the believer embraces Christ and the fellowship is mutual 
and reciprocal. The first begins in regeneration and is perfected 
in sanctification ; the second begins with faith and will be per- 
fected when faith is swallowed up in the beatific vision in glory. 

(1) One group of texts represent Christ as being in the 
believer. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, 
and ye in me, and I in you" (Jno. 14:20). "If Christ be in you, 
the body is dead because of sin ; but the Spirit is life because of 
righteousness" (Rom. 8:9). "I am crucified with Christ; never- 
theless I live; yet not I, but Christ, liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20). 

(2) A second group of texts represent the believer as be- 
ing in Christ. "I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" 
(Jno. 14:20). "Alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine 1 and Experience 355 

(Rom. 6:11). "There is therefore now no condemnation to 
them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). "If any man be 
in Christ, he is a new creature" (II. Cor. 5:17). "He hath 
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1 4). 
"In Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes afar off are made nigh 
by the blood of Christ" (Eph. 2:13). 

Christ is in the believer as the soul is in the body ; and the 
believer is in Christ as we are in the atmosphere which surrounds 
us. The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of the believer; and in 
Christ the believer lives and moves and has all his being. "He 
that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Cor. 6:17). 

(a) This is not a merely natural union, like that between 
God and all the works of his hand, as held by Rationalists. 

(b) It is not a mere moral and sympathetic union, like that 
between teacher and pupil, or like that between David and Jona- 
than, as held by Socinians and Arminians. 

(c) It is not a union of essences, like that between oxygen 
and hydrogen in water, or like that of the acid and the alkali in 
the neutral salt, as held by Mystics. 

(d) It is not a mere union in external institutions and ordi- 
nances, like that of union with the Church and participation in 
the sacraments, as held by Romanists, Lutherans, and High 
Churchmen. 

(e) It is not an organic union, like that between the vine 
and the branches, or like that between the head and the mem- 
bers in the body, as held by Realists and Evolutionists. 

(f) But it is an unique union in fellowship, a veritable com- 
munion, like that between two friends, wherein the first friend 
makes the subjective nature of the second person like his own, 
while the second person lives and moves and has his being in the 
first, an internal and external brotherliness, as held by conserva- 
tive and orthodox theologians. 

(g) It is mystical in the sense that it is inscrutable in its 
closeness and intimacy; but it is not mystical in the sense that 
it is unintelligible and beyond the grasp of the faculties. 

(h) It is a spiritual union, in the sense that it is constituted 
and continued by the Holy Ghost — first by his dynamic power of 



356 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

regeneration and second by his witnessing power in producing 
faith. 

(i) It is indissoluble ,in the sense that to dissolve it the 
Spirit would have to be first withdrawn in such a manner as to 
nullify regeneration on the one hand and faith on the other; for 
as long as he regenerates, the soul must have the Christ-like 
heart, and as long as he testifies, the soul must assent to that 
testimony; the believer can fall from grace, and dissolve this 
union, only by the expulsion of the Spirit, an act which he has 
neither the authority nor power to perform. 

(j) The Scriptures, to set forth the nature of this union, 
do employ sundry figures ; the union of the building and its 
foundation (Eph. 2:20-22); the union of husband and wife 
(Rom. 7:4) ; the union of the vine and the branches (Jno. 15:1- 
10) ; the union between the head and the body (I Cor. 12:12) ; 
the union of the race with Adam (Rom. 5:12, 21). But there 
is a literalism often applied in the interpretation of these meta- 
phors which educes from them vicious conclusions. The ex- 
positor must faithfully keep before him the point for the illus- 
tration of which they were spoken, else he will commit the exe- 
getical crime of making figures of speech the proof-texts of 
dogmas and extracting from them a kind of doctrine which the 
Spirit never compressed within them. Since the days of Origen, 
spiritualizing, or theologizing out of tropes and metaphors, has 
been the bane of the formulation of the doctrines of sacred 
Scripture. And nowhere has this vice been more industriously 
and sophistically practiced than in connection with these meta- 
phors bearing on the union of Christ and believers. 

2. The consequent benefits of this union between Christ and 
believers are: (1) Justification, (2) Adoption, (3) Sanctifica- 
tion and (4) Evangelical obedience or good works. These topics 
are to be developed successively in their order. But each of these 
gracious blessings have Christ as their cause and basis and are 
obtainable in Christian experience as a result of union with him 
by faith. 

Justification is that act of divine grace, predicated upon the 
righteousness of Christ, whereby the believer is received into the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 357 

number and given all the rights and privileges of a citizen in 
God's kingdom. 

Adoption is that act of grace, predicated upon the obedience 
of Christ as a Son in his Father's house, wherein the believer 
is received into the number, and given all the rights and privi- 
leges, of children in the house of God. 

Sanctification is that work of grace, predicated likewise upon 
the atoning work of the Redeemer, wherein the believer is purged 
of all his subjective sinfulness and made Christ-like in all his 
heart and disposition, which renders him meet in character for 
citizenship in the kingdom and sonship in the house of God. 

Evangelical obedience is that result of grace, predicated also 
upon the atonement, wherein the believer walks according to the 
precepts and example of his Lord. 

All these blessings are given in Christ and on account of 
Christ and are grasped by the hand of faith and are to be set 
down as its fruits. 

IX. Assurance.— To believe in Christ, and to believe that 
we believe are entirely different questions. It is perfectly con- 
ceivable that a man may believe in Christ and yet be doubtful 
that he does so believe. He may also believe and at the same 
time know that he believes. Faith insures the salvation of the be- 
liever; knowing that we believe is the assurance of salvation. 
Good and evangelical works are the true and proper evidence 
of faith. That faith which does not lead men to act upon, and in 
compliance with, the commands and promises of Christ, is called 
in Scripture "dead faith," that is, an unreal and untrue faith. 

"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he 
hath faith, and have not works? can faith (that sort of faith), 
save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of 
daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye 
warmed and filled ; notwithstanding ye give them not those things 
which are needful to the body ; what doth it profit (them) ? Even 
so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone, (Unaccom- 
panied by fruits). Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I 
have works ; show me thy faith without thy works, and I will 
show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is 



358 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

one God; thou doest well (that far): devils also believe, and 
tremble. But will thou know, O vain man, that faith without 
works is dead? . . . For as the body without the spirit is 
dead, so faith without works is dead" (Jas. 2:15-26). 

Then we are to judge faith as we do the tree, by its fruits. 
He who is able to discover on the boughs of his life a crop of 
evangelical fruit may thereby know that he is a believer. But 
if the fruit be too scanty in quantity, or too poor in quality, he 
may be thrown into doubt as to whether he be a believer or not. 
There is no mystical, no secret and occult way in which we may 
arrive at this knowledge. Wouldst know whether thou art a 
Christian or not? Examine the tree for its fruit. There is no 
other mode of coming at this knowledge. 

Wouldst improve thy faith? Do the things to thyself which 
will make thy Christian tree bear better and more bountifully. 
Exercise thyself in godliness; so shalt thou strengthen faith and 
bring out the evidences of faith. Withhold thy hand from doing 
good ; and so shall thy soul forfeit its sense of security and sal- 
vation. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Justification 

There is no more important doctrine, no more distinguished 
blessing, in all the Christian system than Justification. It is de- 
fined by the Westminster Catechism, with which all the Lutheran 
and Reformed creeds agree, in the following language : 

"An act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our 
sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the right- 
eousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone." 

An analysis of this definition will yield the following propo- 
sitions as the contents of this symbolic statement, and as the 
elements of this great doctrine in the Christian system of dogma- 
tics. 

1. Justification is an act of grace. 

The implicates in this statement are: (i) It is an act of 
grace, as distinguished from a work of grace. An act termi- 
nates in the doing of the thing; a work has progress and con- 
tinuity. There is no process of justifying the believer ; it is 
done instantaneously and completed in the very act of doing it. 
Its analogue is a mathematical point; while a line or a surface 
would be the analogue of a work. (2) It is an act of grace, as 
contradistinguished from the creative and providential efficiency 
of God. A grace is something given ; a work is something done. 
Justification is a grace, a something bestowed by the kindness 
and love of God, and not a something which is procured by 
works, either small or great. (3) It is an act of God's free 
grace as distinguished from those blessings, which are conditioned 
upon something which the beneficiary does. The law of divine 
providence is, If a man will not work, neither shall he eat; but 
in a scheme of grace the inquisition is, What hast thou that 
thou didst not receive? God was not under an> primary obli- 
gation to justify any sinner. He freely consents to go into court, 
and issue the case upon the merits of Christ. To the Redeemer 



360 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

it is just and right; to the sinner it is kindness and generosity. 
Believers are gratuitously justified by the Deity. He might 
have held the sinner to judgment and condemnation. 

2. The ground of this justifying act is the righteousness of 
Christ. 

The propositions herein infolded are: (1) The justification 
of the believer is not predicated upon the ground of his own obe- 
dience. (2) Nor is it based upon some supposititious obedience 
rendered by the subject before the bar of God. (3) Nor is it the 
result of divine pity and mere tenderness of heart, which shrinks 
from inflicting the penalty. (4) But the judgment of justifica- 
tion is based upon the fact that the prisoner impleaded at the 
divine tribunal is truly and properly righteous ; it is no fictitious 
transaction. (5) This declaration is predicated upon the ground 
of the righteousness of Christ, which the believer appears with, 
before the bar of God, and presents as the reason why he should 
be discharged from the custody of the divine law and dismissed 
out of court, the peer of the tallest archangel which treads the 
gorgeous mosaic of the sky. 

3. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to the believer. 

How comes he in the court of God with somebody else's 
righteousness? What right and title has he to it? Granted that 
it is good, genuine and bona fide, a something which warrants 
!he pronouncement of a judgment of justification : what right has 
this person to present it, and claim in its name his discharge? 
The answer is, It was imputed to him. God set it down to his 
credit. His title to it vests in an act of divine donation ; he 
holds it by a deed of gift from God. A title so grounded is 
unimpeachable and unclouded, albeit he who presents it is debtor 
to a benefactor for the gift. The believer did not get the right- 
eousness of Christ for himself and by his own efforts, but it was 
a donation, an imputation. 

4. The righteousness of Christ is received by faiths . 

God extends the obedience of his Son in imputation; the 
sinner extends the hand of faith and receives it. Entitled by 
God, authorized and warranted by him, to do so, the believer 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 361 

grasps it in his hand of faith and goes with it into the presence 
of God ; and upon it offers his defence in the suit, and upon it 
pleads not guilty to the indictment. This is the precise and 
definite way in which he lays hold upon and uses a righteousness 
which did not naturally belong to him. 

5. The immediate consequences of justification are two : (1) 
Pardon, and (2) Acceptance. 

Pardon is the non-imputation of sin, that effect of justifica- 
tion which remits penalty and saves the believer from future 
woe. Acceptance of the believers person as righteous in the 
sight of God insures that he will henceforth be dealt with and 
treated as if he had never sinned. These are not infrequently 
characterized as the first and second elements in justification. 
But they are more accurately called the effects of justification. 
But however viewed, the justification of a sinner secures the re- 
mission of penalty on the one hand and restoration to the favour 
of God on the other. 

I. Definition. — Justification ....is that judicial act of God, 
predicated upon the righteousness of Christ, wherein he declares 
the regenerated and believing sinner no longer liable to the pen- 
alty of the law, but to be a man in good and regular standing 
in the favour of God as the Judge and Ruler of the universe. In 
it God reverses his judgment upon the sinner. He had formerly 
pronounced him guilty and imposed upon him the sentence of 
condemnation; he now pronounces him righteous and passes an 
order for his discharge from penalty and for his re-patriation 
in the kingdom of God. This reversal of the divine attitude is 
due to what Christ has done and to the manner in which the 
imputation of his obedience affects the sinner. God did con- 
demn ; he now acquits. He did expel ; he now receives. He 
did pass the death-sentence ; he now restores to eternal life. In 
justification, for Christ's sake, God reverses himself. The effect 
is the restoration of the sinner to good standing in God's rectoral 
regard and conferring upon him all the rights and privileges of 
citizenship in his kingdom. 



362 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

II. Outline. — The nature of justification can be fully de- 
veloped by following the treatment here outlined : 



Its efficient cause : the grace of God. 

Its material cause : the righteousness of Christ. 

Its instrumental cause : faith. 

Its formal cause : imputation. 

Its final cause: (1) Pardon, and (2) Restoration. 



Sinners are said to be justified by grace; to be justified by 
righteousness ; to be justified by faith, to be justified by imputa- 
tion, to be forgiven, to be accepted. All these forms of expres- 
sion are employed in the Scriptures and must be held to be true. 
The problem is to find the sense in which they are true ; the 
sense in which it is true that we are justified by grace; the 
sense in which we are justified by righteousness; the sense in 
which we are justified by imputation; the sense in which we are 
justified by faith ; the sense in which we are forgiven ; and the 
sense in which we are restored to the divine favour. In one 
sense God is one, but in another sense he is three; in one sense 
Christ is human, in another sense he is divine; in one sense man 
is a physical being, and in another sense he is a psychical being; 
the problem is to find the respective senses in which these various 
predications may be held without inconsistency and contradic- 
tion. So it is the task of the theologian to indicate the office of 
grace, of righteousness, of imputation, of faith, of pardon, of 
acceptance, in a scheme of justification, so as to present a har- 
monious and self -consistent view of the subject. We are not 
justified by grace in the same sense in which we are justified by 
righteousness ; and we are not justified by righteousness in the 
same sense in which we are justified by faith; and we are not 
pardoned in the same sense in which we are justified. Follow- 
ing this outline, we ought to come to clear and self-consistent 
views of the various offices which these different things perform 
in respect to the justification of a sinner. Distinctions are ab- 
solutely essential to clearness of doctrine. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 363 

III. Efficient Cause. — The efficient or producing cause 
of justification, the power which brings it into being, is the grace 
of God. 

"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption 
that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:24). "Therefore, it is of faith, 
that it might be by grace" (Rom. 4:16). "For by grace are ye 
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of 
God" (Eph. 2:8). "That being justified by his grace, we should 
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Tit. 3:7). 
"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God 
that justifleth" (Rom. 8:34). 

While it is thus easy to classify justification as one of the 
blessings of God's grace, the intrinsic importance of the subject, 
and the many questions which have been raised and mooted con- 
cerning it, demand that its definitive predicates be indicated with 
great regard to detail and discrimination. 

1. Justification is an act of God's grace as distinguished from 
his creative and providential efficiency. All the acts of God 
ad extra (that is, all his acts terminating upon beings, ob- 
jects, events and relations outside the circle of the Godhead as dis- 
tinguished from those immanent and intransitive activities within 
the unapproachable life of the Trinity) fall under one of three 
comprehensive heads — creation, providence, or redemption. All 
the energies and acts of the Godhead proceed from the Father, 
through the Son, and by the Spirit. The Spirit is the universal 
efficient of the Trinity. The power of the Deity was applied, 
ex nihilo, by the Holy Spirit and resulted in the bringing into 
existence of the heavens and the earth and all things in them, as 
substances distinct from God. The power of the Godhead is 
likewise applied to the sustentation and government of the created 
universe through the Son and by the Spirit, resulting in the preser- 
vation and regulation of all the works of the divine hand. And the 
power of the Trinity is also applied to sinners through the Son 
and by the Spirit, resulting in the production of the saints of 
God. The power of the Spirit, when thus applied to sinners for 
redemptive ends, is technically called grace. Now justification 
is an effect, not of creative power, nor of providential power, 



364 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

but definitely of gracious power. It is distinctively a redemp- 
tive act; and the Unitarian and rationalist have need of seeing 
and realizing this distinction, inasmuch as they are prone to con- 
strue it as a mere providential Result ; that is, a result following 
in the general exercise of God's moral government over the world, 
terminating upon those who are obedient to his natural and moral 
laws. Any scheme of justification by human works issues the 
case of the sinner in the courtroom of natural law and in accord- 
ance with the rules of natural moral government. But, "being 
justified freely by his grace," means first of all that the case is 
terminated in a court of grace and under a system where grace 
is a radical principle. God, then, justifies the believer, not as a 
Creator, not as a sovereign providential Ruler, but, specifically 
and exactly, in his character of Redeemer. 

2. But justification is not only an act of the gracious opera- 
tion of the Spirit of God as contradistinguished from the creative 
and providential actions of this self-same Spirit, but it is a for- 
ensic act of grace as contradistinguished from efficiency in regen- 
eration. We are regenerated by grace, and we are justified by 
grace ; but in the production of these two spiritual effects grace 
does not act in the same mode. There are two general sorts of 
power set forth in the Scriptures, represented the one by the 
Greek word dunamis, from which comes our word dynamite, 
which signifies force, strength, might, that which has its analogue 
in muscular power ; and the second is represented by the Greek 
word exousia, which signifies authority, the power of an official 
of government. 

In regeneration the power of the Spirit is dynamic; the effici- 
ency of the Spirit is exerted upon the fundamental and governing 
appetency of the soul, seminally reversing it by his almightiness ; 
in justification, however, the power of the Spirit is declarative; 
his authority is exercised in formally and judicially pronouncing 
the sinner at the bar just with God. We are regenerated by 
the sheer almightiness of the Spirit's power; but we are" not 
justified by the omnipotent strength of the Holy Ghost. On the 
contrary, justifying grace is forensic, pronouncing a judgment 
based upon a ground and a reason, as the human judge acquits, 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 365 

for cause, the prisoner at his bar. The civil magistrate does not 
deliver the accused from the custody of the sheriff by the naked 
strength of his physical strength, but in the exercise of the judi- 
cial powers which are vested in him by law. So grace justifies 
the sinner. The Spirit does not forcibly wrench the sinner out 
of the hand of law, by his sheer almightiness, but he delivers him, 
for cause, by the exercise of the judicial powers which are 
economically vested in him. Regenerating grace is dynamical in 
its nature; but justifying grace is judicial in its nature. 

3. So also does justifying grace differ from the grace of 
faith. In producing faith in Christ the Spirit acts as a witness, 
and so clearly and forcibly testifies to the regenerated mind con- 
cerning Christ as he is set forth in the Scriptures that the soul, 
under the power of his testimony, commits itself to Christ as its 
personal Saviour. But in justification, grace considers the im- 
puted righteousness of Christ as a new fact in the sinner's history 
and upon the ground of this new fact, a judgment of condemna- 
tion is changed into a judgment of justification. The grace which 
produces faith is testificatory in its nature ; but the grace 
of justification is declarative and judicial in its character. In 
bringing faith into existence, the Spirit is a witness; in bringing 
justification into being, the Spirit is a judge. All the blessings 
of redemption are graces of the Spirit; that is, all the benefits 
of the Christian religion are the products of the grace of the 
Holy Ghost, and the saint has nothing which he did not receive 
as a gratuity ; but the Spirit in bestowing one blessing acts differ- 
ently from the manner in which he acts in bestowing another 
blessing. The problem of soteriology consists in detecting, from 
the Christian revelation, these various ways in which the Spirit, 
who acts sovereignly and as he wills, brings the various blessings 
of religious life into the experience of the sinner whose salvation 
he undertakes. Much error and confusion comes from attempts 
to rule the Spirit, and construe him as acting in an iron-bound 
and monotonous mode in producing the various phenomena of 
religious life and experience. 

Regenerating grace is subjective, terminating upon the sin- 
ner's heart and, in the sub-conscious region of the soul, changing 



366 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

the governing moral disposition. Justifying grace, on the other 
hand, is objective, terminating upon the sinner's legal relations 
and reinstating him in all his rights and privileges as a subject of 
God's government. The need of a rectification of his relations 
to law is as obvious as is the need of a rectification of the funda- 
mental and governing appetency of his soul. Many bad men live 
in the state without condemnation; and some good men, we may 
imagine, land unjustly in the penitentiary. This cannot be under 
the perfect moral government of God, but the illustration serves 
to direct the attention to the distinction between character and 
legal relations ; and to show how important it is not only to be 
right-hearted, but also to be properly related to the government 
under which we live. The sinful subject of God's government 
needs a change of heart that he may be meet for citizenship in 
his commonwealth ; and he also needs justification that he may 
have legal standing in that kingdom. The scheme of grace ade- 
quately provides for both changes. Regeneration, terminating 
upon his character and, in sanctification, completing what] is 
begun in regeneration, perfects those changes of nature which 
are necessary to make the sinner a good citizen. But justification, 
terminating upon the sinner's relation to law and government, 
restores the sinner to good standing in the rectoral regard of God 
and conveys all the rights and privileges of a lawful citizenship. 

Believing grace, however, is that testimony of the Holy 
Spirit which is delivered in the consciousness of the regenerated 
sinner by which his mind is enlightened so' that he sees Christ 
as he is set forth in the Scriptures and so softens his heart that 
he gladly embraces the Saviour as his personal Redeemer. Be- 
lieving grace leads, by divine persuasion, the sinner to lay hold 
upon Christ as he is offered in the gospel, and upon the presenta- 
tion of his merits the Lord pronounces upon the soul a judgment 
of justification. Believing grace is suasory in its nature ; justify- 
ing grace is judicial in its character. The one draws the sinner 
to Jesus; the other sends him out of court with peace in his 
conscience and with the joy of acceptance in his heart. 

The Romish soteriology identifies sanctifying and justifying 
grace and sees no distinction between sanctification and justifica- 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 367 

tion, between the subjective and the objective operations of the 
Spirit, between the work of the Spirit within us and the work 
of the Spirit upon us. The rationalist and Unitarian, on the 
other hand, perceive no distinction between believing and justify- 
ing grace, inasmuch as, in his soteriology, all grace is merely 
didactic and suasory in its nature. In the theology of the Luther- 
ans and Reformers, however, a sharp distinction is drawn; regen- 
erating grace is dynamical, believing grace is suasory and justify- 
ing grace is forensic. The one changes the sinner's heart, the 
other changes his attitude and the third changes his status. 

In the mouth of a rationalist, to justify means to pardon ; 
in the mouth of a Romanist, to justify means to sanctify; but in 
the mouth of a Calvinist, to justify means to justify — to judi- 
cially declare the person at the bar of God to be righteous. 

4. What, then, are the proofs of the forensic nature of 
justifying grace? What are the arguments by which it can be 
evinced that the sinner's case is issued at the bar of God, and not 
by the dynamic strength of Jehovah on the one hand and not in 
the executive chamber of the Deity on the other hand? 

We may not determine, in some a priori manner, how 
God ought to deal with a sinner's case. The only legitimate mode 
of determining this question is to take the Christian revelation 
and make, by exegesis and exposition, a digest of its teachings 
on the subject. 

(1) The first argument for the forensic nature of the jus- 
tifying act is founded upon the uniform and persistent usage of 
the word justify throughout the Scriptures.. 

In the interpretation of any document, its words must be 
taken in the sense in which the author uniformly employs them. 
Any word carries the meaning of the author, no matter how 
widely it may depart from etymologies and dictionaries and lexi- 
cons. And the Scriptures constantly and consciously assign to 
the words justify and justification the forensic meaning of declar- 
ing the person at the bar righteous. 

"If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto 
judgment, that the judges may judge them ; then they shall justify 
the righteous and condemn the wicked" (Deut. 25:1). 



368 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

This text is from the Mosaic legislation, the code which God 
prescribed for Israel. It is the language of law. Does to 
"justify" in the text mean to sanctify? Was the civil magistrate 
required to make the righteous man a good man in his subjective 
character? Was he required by this law to make the wicked 
man subjectively wicked when he "condemned" him ? On the con- 
trary, it is intuitively obvious that the justified man must be 
righteous in order to be legally pronounced righteous by the civil 
judge and that the wicked man must be wicked in order to ground, 
in justice, a sentence of condemnation upon him. Righteousness 
and wickedness were the antecedents of their respective judg- 
ments; and the act of the judge cannot be interpreted as creating 
the righteousness or the wickedness which were to constitute the 
ground of his decision. Nor can to "justify" in this text mean 
to pardon; for the law did not prescribe that the judge was to 
pardon the man whom the judicial investigation found to be 
righteous ; if righteous, he had done nothing to be pardoned for. 
A citizen who has committed no crime, and who is found truly 
and strictly blameless, cannot be offered a pardon, nor can he in 
self-respect accept a pardon. To "justify" in the text can mean 
nothing but to declare just. The civil magistrate was required, 
by this law, to proclaim the man whom he found righteous to be 
just and condemn the man whom he found, in his court, to be 
wicked. More than this ; the pardoning power is never lodged 
in the hands of any judge; it is a function of the executive and 
not of the bench. 

"I will not justify the wicked" (Ex. 23:7). 

Does God here say, "I will not sanctify the wicked; I will 
not change his moral character?". But this is precisely what he 
does do in regeneration and sanctification — turns wicked men 
into good men. If God does not convert the wicked, according 
to the Scriptures, who can? But does God say in this text, "I 
will not pardon the wicked, I will not release him from the pen- 
alty which he has incurred?" But this is precisely what the ad- 
vocates of justification by pardon allege that he does do. If 
"justify" in this text means "sanctify," then God says, "I will 
not sanctify the wicked;" and if it means "pardon," then God 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 369 

here says, "I will not pardon the wicked." They, therefore, cut 
the throat of their own doctrine who so translate to "justify" 
in this text. But the plain meaning of the text is, "I will not 
proclaim the wicked righteous." The divine pronouncements 
from the bench will always be consonant with the facts and the 
law in the case. Otherwise the divine judge would act corruptly 
and immorally in delivering his judicial opinions. This, God, 
under no circumstances, can do. 

"All the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified 
God" (Luke 7:29). 

Did the people and the publicans, when they heard Jesus, 
sanctify God, making him a holy Deity? It were blasphemy to 
think it. Did they pardon God? It were folly to imagine God 
under penalties at their bar. Did all the people and the publicans, 
in the matter referred to, when they heard the Redeemer, pro- 
claim God just and righteous? What other meaning than this 
conveys any sense? 

"A man is not justified by the works of the law" (Gal. 2 :i6). 

Does it mean that a man is not made holy by the works of 
the law, by his obedience to moral precepts? Does it mean that 
a man is not pardoned by his deeds under the law and in ac- 
cordance therewith? Or does it mean that no man is proclaimed 
just in the court-room of God by the deeds, or on account of 
the works which he has done in compliance with the law? This 
is the only sensible and possible meaning which the word can 
carry in this text. 

"He that justifieth the wicked is an abomination to the 
Lord" (Prov. 17:15). 

If "justify" here means sanctify, then the text teaches that 
whosoever makes a bad subjectively a good man is an abomina- 
tion to the Lord. If it here means pardon, then we have the doc- 
trine that whosoever pardons a wicked man commits what is an 
abomination to the Lord. Both conclusions are intolerable. The 
passage means that whosoever proclaims a wicked man to be a 
righteous man, and treats him as if he were not wicked, perpe- 
trates an abomination before the Lord. 



37° Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

The common sense of men supports these texts of Scripture. 
A citizen is impleaded at the civil bar under an indictment which 
charges him with theft, and the trial issues in his justification, 
and the judge so announces. Does any sane man imagine that 
the judge subjectively made him an honest man, or that the judge 
pardoned him? Manifestly all that has occurred is, the judge 
has proclaimed the accused man not guilty, but as far as the in- 
vestigation goes, honest and upright. 

(2) The second argument for the forensic nature of the 
justifying act is founded upon the meaning of its antithesis, con- 
demnation. 

A good mode of exposition is to show the reverse side of the 
idea. The contrary to justification is condemnation. These two 
words, and the two ideas which they symbolize, stand over against 
each other in sharpest contrast. What one means, the other does 
not mean. What one affirms, the other denies. If justification 
means one thing, condemnation means the opposite. If to justify 
is to pardon, then to condemn is to punish. If to justify is to 
remit penalty, then to condemn is to inflict penalty. If to justify 
is to make subjectively good, to condemn is to make subjectively 
bad. If to justify is to infuse character, to condemn is to take 
away character. If to justify is to declare righteous, to condemn 
is to declare guilty. If to justify is to pronounce the prisoner 
at the bar legally just, to condemn is to pronounce the prisoner 
at the bar legally guilty. 

"If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me" 
(Job. 9:20). 

Let us test the alleged meanings of both these words in this 
passage. If we assume that to justify means to pardon, then we 
have this impossible rendering : "If I pardon myself, mine own 
month shall inflict the penalty upon me." If to justify means to 
sanctify, then we have this absurd paraphrase : "If I make my- 
self subjectively holy, mine own mouth shall make me subjectively 
corrupt." If to justify means to declare righteous, we have this 
natural and acceptable rendering : "If I proclaim myself right- 
eous, mine own mouth will proclaim me guilty." 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 371 

"There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which 
are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). 

Let the same experiment be made with this great declara- 
tion. Does it mean, "There is, therefore, now no penalty to them 
which are in Christ Jesus"? Or, "There is, therefore, now no 
corruption in them which are in Christ Jesus"? Or, "There is, 
therefore, now no proclamation of the guilt of them which are 
in Christ Jesus"? 

If I condemn the government for declaring war, do I thereby 
inflict penalty upon the government? If I condemn the govern- 
ment for declaring war, do I thereby make the government sub- 
jectively corrupt? If I condemn the government for declaring 
war, do I do more than proclaim that the government is wrong 
in its declaration of war? In this supposititious case, I sit in 
judgment upon the action of the government and pronounce an 
adverse judgment upon it for its course. The judgment is judi- 
cial ; it is not executive, nor is it dynamical. 

(3) The third argument for the forensic character of the 
justifying act is founded upon Paul's statement of the question. 

The nature of the question determines the nature of the 
answer. If I were asked, "How many boxes of oranges grow, 
upon the average, upon a single orange tree?" I should be false 
and evasive if I replied, "Two barrels of apples is the average 
yield of a single tree." Such a reply would be no answer to the 
question about oranges. Now the exact question raised by the 
Scriptures is, "How shall a man be just with God?" The ques- 
tion is not, "How can a man escape hell, how can he be pardoned ?" 
The question, again, is not, "How can a man be holy before 
God?" But the exact Biblical question is, "How can a man be 
just before God ?" It is no answer to this question to reply, "By 
being pardoned." It is no answer to it to reply, "By being holy." 
These would be answers to entirely different questions. If the 
questions, "How can a man be pardoned?" and, "How can a 
man be holy?" are different questions from, "How can a man be 
just?" then pardon and sanctification are different from justifi- 
cation. 



372 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ ; for it is the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, 
and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God 
revealed from faith to faith ; as it is written, the just shall live 
by faith" (Rom. I :i6, 17). 

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because there- 
in is revealed the righteousness of God, which is appropriated 
by faith and presented as the ground of justification. Faith, 
laying hold of that righteousness, causes, in an instrumentary 
way, the just to live. Not by laying hold of the pardoning mercy 
of God ; not by grasping the sanctifying power of grace ; but by 
laying hold of the righteousness of God, an unrighteous sinner be 
comes righteous at the bar of God, and is so declared in his 
justification. 

"Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified 
in his sight ; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now 
the righteousness of God without the law is manifest, being wit- 
nessed by the law and the prophets ; even the righteousness of 
God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that 
believe ; for there is no difference ; for all have sinned and come 
short of the glory of God ; being justified freely by his grace 
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ; whom God hath 
set forth to be the propitiation through faith in his blood, to 
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, 
through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time 
his righteousness ; that he might be just, and the justifier of him 
which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:20-26). 

The question raised and treated in this passage is not one 
concerning pardon, nor concerning sanctification, but distinctly 
one concerning justification. All are sinners ; none can be rein- 
stated in the divine favour by his deeds under the law ; but such 
may be reinstated by acting faith in Jesus Christ, thereby laying 
hold upon the righteousness of God ; so that possessing this bona 
fide righteousness, God may, upon it as a true and valid ground, 
declare the sinner righteous, and at the same time himself be 
just in justifying the ungodly. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 373 

"Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon 
all men unto condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of one 
the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For 
as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by 
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Rom. 5: 
18, 19). 

This parallel between the first and the second Adam has a 
conclusive bearing upon our question. As a result of the action 
of the first Adam in Eden a judgment of condemnation was pro- 
nounced upon all his constituent posterity; and as a result of the 
action of the second Adam on Calvary a judgment of justifica- 
tion came upon all his constituent posterity. The reign of grace 
is not through sovereign clemency, but "through righteousness." 
Sinners are justified, not because they are holy, nor by being 
pardoned, but on account of the righteousness of Christ, imputed 
to them and received by faith. 

How can a sinner be released from punishment? How can 
a sinner become holy? These are questions of vast importance, 
and the Scriptures reply to them both. On account of the im- 
puted righteousness, and as a consequence of their justification, 
they are pardoned, or delivered from the penalty of sin ; and by 
the subjective work of the Holy Spirit they are ultimately made 
holy through sanctification. But this is very different from the 
apostolic question, "How shall a man be just with God?" It is 
illogical and untheological to identify justification and pardon, 
or to identify justification and sanctification. Pardon is a benefit 
conferred by executive mercy; sanctification is a blessing con- 
ferred by the Spirit's operation upon internal character; but 
justification is a benefit which issues from a court-room, founded 
upon the righteousness of the prisoner at the bar. The very 
statement of the question demands such a resolution of the nature 
of justifying grace. 

IV. Material Cause. — Upon what ground does God, an 
omniscient and honest Judge, pronounce a sinner, confessedly 
guilty and known by himself to be guilty, to be not guilty but 
positively righteous? How can such an intelligent and moral 
Being as God be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly? The 



374 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

law is against the prisoner ; and the facts are against the pris- 
oner ; and the Judge knows the law and all the facts in the case ; 
and yet he remits the penalty and proclaims the sinner a righte- 
ous man! Does he justify in a purely arbitrary manner? Does 
he ignore the law ? Does he blind his eyes to the palpable facts ? 
Does the Judge of all the earth do a conscious wrong when he 
discharges the guilty sinner? Is the Deity a hypocrite? Does 
he lie when he declares the sinner to be righteous? 

The argument, so far, has brought the case into court, into 
God's court. The Judge knows, and his justification of the sinner, 
who is in reality guilty, cannot be pronounced in ignorance or 
be interpreted as a mistake on the part of the occupant of the 
bench. The Judge is absolutely moral, and the judgment of 
justification cannot be explained upon the ground that the Judge 
was not fully truthful, honest and sincere when he proclaimed 
the guilty sinner to be righteous. The accused has not been dis- 
missed as an act of pardoning clemency ; nor has he been dis- 
charged by the almighty and sovereign strength of God, forcibly 
wrenching him out of the hands of justice and law ; the case has 
been issued in a court which demands some adequate basis upon 
which the judgment of justification may rest. The Judge is 
omniscient, inerrant and immutable ; the law is explicit, rigid and 
uncompromising ; the facts are palpably and openly and avowedly 
against the sinner, constituting him a true and flagrant criminal. 
How then can God be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly? 
The argument is bound to ground justification in some real and 
adequate way in order to vindicate the Almighty and protect his 
character for intelligence and morals. If he knew what he was 
doing, when he declared a sinner innocent, then he was con- 
sciously immoral. If he did it in ignorance, then he is not omnis- 
cient. Upon what intelligent and adequate consideration did he 
base this pronouncement, which at once vindicates his honesty 
and righteousness and at the same time exhibits his knowledge 
and understanding? The character of the Deity is involved in 
our interpretation of the ground of justification. 

The atonement of Christ has changed the original facts in 
the case. This is precisely the solution of the problem. A new 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 375 

fact in the sinner's history has come into being — a fact of such 
a nature as warrants and requires the annulment of the judgment 
of condemnation and the erection in lieu thereof of a judgment 
of justification ; a fact, which calls upon a court of strict and 
rigorous justice to reverse itself by now justifying the person 
which was formerly condemned. What then is this revolutioniz- 
ing fact which has been imported into the sinner's history, which 
now alters his status before God? I answer, The Righteousness 
of Christ. This is the new fact in the case, the new fact in the 
history of the sinner, the meritorious ground of the reversed judg- 
ment in the cause. God has not changed ; law has not changed ; 
the facts in the life of the accused have changed. Whereas, in 
the first hearing, he ought to have been condemned as he was 
condemned, in the second hearing of the case he ought to be ac- 
quitted because, in this review, he is found to be literally and 
truly righteous with the righteousness of Christ. At this point 
the discussion is not concerned with how he got this righteousness 
of Christ but solely with the fact of its possession. Does he 
possess that righteousness? If so, it constitutes an adequate 
reason for the sinner's justification and release. But does he 
possess it? The point must be proved by testimony — testimony 
from the word of God. 

Concerning the ground upon which God justifies a sinner, 
the following suppositions would seem to be exhaustive categories 
of hypothesis: 

( 1 ) Upon the ground of no righteousness at all. 

(2) Upon the ground of the sinner's own righteousness. 

(3) Upon the ground of some constructive righteousness. 

(4) Upon the ground of somebody else's righteousness. 

1. Taking up these suppositions in their order, the first propo- 
sition is : The sinner must be justified upon the ground of some 
righteousness or upon the ground of no righteousness at all. This 
proposition is an alternative, one or the other of which must be 
false. 

(1) That the sinner cannot be justified upon the ground of 
no righteousness of any sort is proved by the fact that, in justifi- 



376 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

cation, God proclaims the sinner righteous. This he could not 
truthfully do upon the hypothesis that the sinner is really righte- 
ous in no sense whatever. God is not a man that he should lie. 

(2) That the sinner cannot be unconditionally pardoned, 
that is, cannot be justified while possessing no righteousness of 
any kind, is proved by the fact that justification is a court-room 
exercise, and no judge can lawfully justify where there is no 
sort of obedience, or compliance with law, on the part of the 
prisoner at the bar. But it has already been proved that justifi- 
cation is a judicial act and not a mere executive act, and every 
judge is bound to declare according to fact and law. 

(3) The pronouncement of a judgment of justification with- 
out a premise of righteousness of any kind really nullifies the 
necessity of atonement. "Without shedding of blood is no re- 
mission." But why should such a proposition be true if God 
could, consistently with his own nature, law and fact, arbitrarily 
justify any sinner who may be impleaded at his bar? That a 
sinner can be unconditionally pardoned by divine fiat, without 
any reference to his righteousness or unrighteousness, renders the 
incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Christ supererogatory. 
God might have remitted, penalty and declared the sinner just 
without any reference to the mediatorial work of Christ at all. 

These considerations are fatal to the hypothesis that the 
sinner can be justified upon the ground of no righteousness at 
all. It would set forth the Deity as proclaiming one righteous 
whom he knew was unrighteous ; it would make him, as a Judge, 
pronounce one righteous who had no sort of righteousness what- 
ever ; it would render the atonement of Christ really unneces- 
sary. Inasmuch, therefore, as every sentence of justification 
must be based upon a premise of some sort of righteousness, it 
follows that it cannot be true that justification has no basis at 
all in righteousness. If justified at all, the sinner must be justi- 
fied for the reason that he possesses some sort of righteousness. 

2. Then if the sinner is justified upon the ground of some 
righteousness, can that righteousness be his own personal right- 
eousness? Can his own obedience and character be made the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience ^77 

righteous reason for God's justification of him? Can any sinner 
stand and claim his acquittal and acceptance upon what he is and 
upon what he has done? 

"If there had been a law given which could have given life, 
verily righteousness would have been by that law" (Gal. 3:2). 

Righteousness is an abstract term for obedience to the law. 
If there had been a law, any law, Adamic, Mosaic, Sinaitic, cere- 
monial, evangelical ; if there had been any law, whatever its nature 
or origin, by obeying which the sinner could have obtained life, 
then verily that would have been the ordained mode of salva- 
tion. But there was no such law; there could be no such law; 
and righteousness, which is the ground and reason of justification, 
must be by grace, for the simple but effective reason that it could 
not be by law. Consequently no man's personal deeds and char- 
acter are available as a condition and reason for justification. 

"If righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in 
vain" (Gal. 2:21). 

If personal obedience to law of any sort ; if any man's be- 
haviour under law of any kind ; if any man's character and con- 
duct developed under any law whatsoever, could have been a com- 
petent ground of justification, then Christ's death, the very ob- 
ject of which was to provide a justifying righteousness, would 
have been in vain. By his mediatorial work he brought into a 
being a justifying righteousness ; if the sinner had been able to 
have made the provision for himself, then Christ need not have 
died. A conclusion which renders nugatory and futile the death 
of the Redeemer cannot be accepted as sound. 

"By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified" 
(Rom. 3 :2o). 

A man's personal righteousness is his obedience to the law 
under which he lives, and his personal character is that which re- 
sults from such an obedience. The Scriptures categorically deny 
that there are any deeds done under the law which can count 
.for justification; deny that there is anything which a sinner can 
do or be which would constitute a reason for his dismissal out 
of court with the benediction and blessing of God. There is no 
limitation upon the word "deeds" in the text, and there is no 



378 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

limitation upon the word "law." The declaration of denial com- 
prehends every variety and aggregation of deeds, and every variety 
and type of law. 

The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Lk. 18:9-14) 
was spoken precisely to this point, "unto certain which trusted 
in themselves that they were righteous and despised others." In 
this story our Lord presents two characters, the moral antitheses 
of each other and both engaged in the same act of seeking their 
justification. The Pharisee based his petition for acceptance 
upon what he was and what he had done ; he was a moralist of 
the most decided puritanical cast, not extortionate, not unjust, 
not unclean, he was a member of the Jewish Church in good and 
regular standing and punctilious in the discharge of the duties 
of his religion, fasting twice every week, and giving tithes of all 
that he possessed towards the extension of the Lord's cause in 
the earth ; he possessed a good name, a good genealogy, a good 
character, a good Church and a good behaviour, yet he went 
down to his house rejected and unjustified. The publican, on the 
contrary, was the very opposite type; he was without honorable 
family connection, extortionate, unjust, an adulterer, outside 
of the Church and negligent of religious duties ; yet he was the 
man who was successful in his quest. The Pharisee had a self- 
righteousness and the publican was severely destitute of anything 
that was creditable in his life and history ; they were moral anti- 
podes. Relatively, the Pharisee was a far better man than was 
the publican, and had the divine acceptance been based upon 
their relative merits, the Pharisee would have been accepted and 
the publican discarded. But the fact was, God rejected the man 
who pleaded his character and conduct and justified the publican 
who cast himself upon the mercy of God as it was in Christ 
Jesus. The lesson is absolute ; no amount and no degree of self- 
righteousness is adequate as a ground of justification in the sight 
of God. If character and conduct would justify any man, they 
would have justified this Pharisee. 

All the sinner's righteousnesses are "filthy rags ;" he must 
find some other garb in which to present himself before God if 
he has any hope of divine acceptance. None is, or can be, good 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 379 

enough to warrant the divine judge in pronouncing him righteous 
and granting him remission of sin and reinstatement in the king- 
dom of God. At best, and at most, no man is ever more than 
relatively good in himself; but it takes an absolutely flawless 
righteousness, a perfect obedience, to constitute a ground of 
justification in the court of God. 

The Pelagian and rationalistic theory of justification, upon 
the ground of personal character and conduct, is a sheer impossi- 
bility in a court where the Judge is omniscient and absolutely 
truthful and exact. 

3. If the sinner must be justified upon the ground of 
some righteousness, and if that righteousness cannot be his 
own personal property, in which he has a title vested in the 
fact that he brought it into being by his own acts of obedi- 
ence under the law, then may he not, under a gracious sys- 
tem of religion, be justified upon the ground of some con- 
structive, supposititious or hypothetical righteousness? May 
there not be some substitute for righteousness which could be 
utilized in a court of strict and rigorous justice as a true and 
substantial basis upon which to rest a judgment of acquittal 
and acceptance? Debts are sometimes cancelled by some sub- 
stitute for money being offered in lieu of the coin of the 
realm; in a similar manner, may there not be, particularly 
under a scheme of grace and accommodation, a something, 
not in itself a righteousness, yet which is graciously accepted 
in lieu of the righteousness which the sinner owes but can- 
not himself pay? 

This is the precise contention of Remonstrants and Ar- 
minians. No man can be justified without any righteous- 
ness whatsoever, neither has any guilty and depraved sin- 
ner any righteousness of his own which he can offer as an 
adequate and acceptable reason for his acceptance ; but, ac- 
cording to this school, God has graciously consented to ac- 
cept faith in Christ as a substitute for righteousness. While 
faith in itself is not an act of obedience intrinsically and ipso 
facto the obedience which God originally required of man 
when he created him and put him in this world under moral 



380 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

demands, yet, since his sinful break-down, God condescend- 
ingly proposes to waive the original demands of his law and 
accept faith in Christ as a satisfactory substitute and upon it 
to discharge the sinner from all the penal claims of the moral 
law and reinstate him in the favour of heaven. Faith is thus 
handled by the school as a constructive, or supposititious, or 
hypothetical, or vicarious righteousness, and predicated as the 
ground of the sinner's justification. 

"If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof 
to glory; but not before God . . . Abraham believed 
God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness . 
Faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:1-5). 

Abraham, the father of the faithful and the type and 
model of all cases of the justification of sinners, was not 
justified by his works, his acts of obedience to the law ; for 
the Scriptures expressly tell us that he was not justified by 
works and that he had not whereof to glory before God. But 
the same Scripture, we are told, just as expressly declares 
that Abraham was justified by faith and that his faith was 
imputed to him for righteousness and was, by God, in deal- 
ing with this patriarch, expressly counted for righteousness. 
Upon this passage the Arminian soteriology has constructed 
this formula as exactly expressive of the ground of justifica- 
tion : "The imputation of faith for righteousness." Faith is 
thus held to be, not the mere instrument, but the very ground 
of justification. The sinner not being at all able to render that 
perfect obedience which the law demands, God is pleased, 
under the covenant of mercy, to accept faith in Christ in the 
place of that real and personal righteousness which the law 
originally demanded. In the day of the judgment, conse- 
quently, the supreme and central question propounded to the 
sinner will not be, "Did you live on earth in strict compli- 
ance with the moral law as summarily comprehended in the 
Ten Commandments?" but the question will be, "Did you be- 
lieve in Jesus?" The final judgment will thus be an inquisi- 
tion for faith, and a man's relation to Christ will determine 
the final issues of his immortality. The gospel proposition, 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 381 

in the thought of this school of soteriologists, is precisely and 
definitely a proposition by God to this sinful world to accept 
faith in Christ as a substitute for the obedience which was 
owed by the sinner. 

"Two facts should be specially noted. One is, that it is 
faith itself, and not its object, that is thus imputed. This is 
certain even where a pronoun is the immediate antecedent 
to the verb. Here is an instance : 'For what saith the Scrip- 
ture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him 
for righteousness.' Here only the faith of Abraham can be 
the antecedent to the pronoun it; and hence only his faith 
could be the subject of the imputation. Further, faith itself, 
as so named, is repeatedly the nominative to the imputation. 
Here are instances: 'His faith is counted for righteousness'; 
'faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.' Hence 
any attempt at a metonymical interpretation of faith, so that 
it shall mean, not itself but its object, that is Christ, and 
hence mean the imputation of his personal righteousness, is 
utterly vain." — Miley, Systematic Theology, Vol. II., p. 319. 

The issue between Arminianism and Calvinism is thus 
sharply drawn over the ground of justification. According to 
the one scheme of soteriology, faith in Christ is itself the 
ground of justification, and, according to the other scheme, it 
is the object of faith, or the righteousness of Christ, which is 
that ground. According to the one, the sinner is justified 
by faith in Christ; according to the other, the sinner is justi- 
fied by the righteousness of Christ, which is received by faith. 
According to the one, faith is the basis upon which God pre- 
dicates the declaration that the sinner is just in his sight; 
according to the other, faith is but tire human instrumentality 
which lays hold upon Christ and presents him as the ground 
of justification. Faith is thus dealt with in the scheme of 
Arminianism as a constructive, or supposititious, or hypotheti- 
cal righteousness, a something which God accepts in lieu of a 
bona fide and genuine righteousness. 

Against this view the following arguments are offered as 
effectively discrediting it: 



382 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

(1). It makes justification a farce, and God the perpe- 
trator of that farce. The law is real, its demands are real, 
it calls for a bona fide and genuine righteousness. But this 
theory proposes to satisfy these real demands for a true right- 
eousness, with faith, which is no righteousness in itself, but 
only a substitute for righteousness. It is not what the Adamic 
law required ; it is not what the moral law demanded. It is 
no real and genuine righteousness, but only a make-believe, 
a something which divine fiat is supposed to force to serve 
the purpose. In truth the believer possesses no righteousness, 
neither his own, nor another's ; but God, knowing the exact 
facts in the case, yet proclaims him righteous and justifies him! 
It is a farce ! It is a fiction ! It is a pretense ! It is not 
honest ! It is not truthful ! By sheer omnipotence and al- 
mightiness the Deity could, if he could do this, do anything. 
He could have blindly and forcibly decreed that the blood of 
bulls and goats was adequate to atone for human guilt. The sham 
transaction touches the veracity of the Deity. 

(2). If faith is imputed instead of righteousness, then 
man has whereof to glory; boasting would not be excluded. 
It is man who does the believing, it is his act. He is fairly en- 
titled to the praise of what he does. While, under the hypo- 
thesis, God furnishes the object of faith, man does the be- 
lieving and presents his faith as a reason why he should be 
dismissed out of court with the favour of the Deity. But the 
Scriptures everywhere show us that no man can do anything 
which would create a claim upon God or put the Deity under 
any sort of obligation to him. "Where is boasting then? 
It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by the 
law of faith" (Rom. 3:27). 

(3). The view that faith is the ground of justification 
contradicts all those texts which represent the righteousness 
of Christ as the ground of justification. "Jesus Christ, whom 
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith -in his 
blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins 
that are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I 
say, at this time his righteousness" (Rom. 3:25). Faith must 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 383 

be either the reason or the instrument of our justification. 
If the ground or reason, then what office shall be assigned to 
the righteousness and merit of Christ? If the instrument or 
mere bond of connection between the sinner and the merits 
of Christ, then the righteousness of Christ performs the office 
of a ground or reason for justification, and faith stands in the 
schedule only as the hand which lays hold upon that right- 
eousness. 

(4) To construe faith as a constructive righteousness and 
rest the judgment of justification upon it as a ground is in- 
consistent with the generic and prevailing office which the 
Scriptures ascribe to faith. It is always dia pisteos, or ek pisteos, 
but never dia pistin; that is, the Greek preposition used with the 
genitive case always expresses the means or instrument. The uni- 
form use of the Greek in the New Testament thus settles the de- 
bate as to whether faith is the instrumentality of justifica- 
tion or the ground for it. 

(5). The doctrine which construes faith as the material 
cause of the justification of the sinner leads more logically 
to Antinomianism than does the view that faith is only the 
instrument of justification. Man believes ; it is his act, it 
justifies him in the sight of God; what is to prevent him from 
sinning at pleasure? What respect has he for a law which 
can be satisfied in all its demands by mere faith? In lieu of 
all the duties imposed by the Ten Commandments he is privi- 
leged to offer faith, and upon it receive justification. Why 
should he keep the law? The obvious thing for him to do 
is to believe, and let obedience alone ; the one will save him 
and the other will not. 

(6). This view misinterprets the passage about Abraham, 
in which it is said that "faith was imputed for righteousness," 
and that other passage in which it is said that "faith was 
counted for righteousness." It is a simple instance of the 
rhetorical figure of metonomy, where the instrument is put 
for the thing itself. The apostle in the context has argued that 
there is none righteous ; that by the deeds of the law shall 
no flesh be justified ; that the righteousness of God by Jesus 



384 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Christ is the only ground of justification; that this righteous- 
ness is received by faith and imputed by God. Now, in the 
light of this context, when he says Abraham's faith "was 
counted unto him for righteousness" it can mean nothing 
else but that faith was the instrumentality by which Abraham 
laid hold upon the righteousness of Christ. Faith was reck- 
oned the means by which the justifying righteousness was ob- 
tained. Better a figure of metonomy here than a fictitious 
justification; better a figure of rhetoric than a contradiction 
of the context, both near and remote. 

4. If the sinner must be justified upon the ground of some 
righteousness, and that righteousness cannot be his own per- 
sonal obedience, and that righteousness cannot be some sup- 
posititious or constructive righteousness, like faith; then the 
only other supposition left is that he, if justified at all, must 
be justified upon the ground of another's righteousness. 

Against the Pelagian and rationalist, who predicate a sin- 
ner's own obedience as the reason for his acceptance by God ; 
against the Arminian who predicates some constructive obe- 
dience as the reason for the sinner's acceptance by the Deity; 
Calvinists allege that the sinner is justified upon the ground 
of the obedience of Christ. That is, a sinner is pardoned and 
restored to his citizenship in the kingdom of God on account 
of what Christ has done for him and in his room and stead. 
That is, the sinner is justified upon the premise of Christ's 
mediatorial conduct and not upon the ground of either his 
ethical obedience or his evangelical obedience. 

Paul declared that he was not ashamed of the gospel of 
Christ," for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from 
faith to faith" (Rom. 1:17). He then, in the first chapter of 
this epistle, shows that the entire Gentile world is an object 
of "the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all un- 
godliness and unrighteousness of men" (Rom. 1:18). In the 
second chapter he shows that the Jews are no better, and 
that there is "wrath, indignation, tribulation and anguish upon 
every soul of man that doeth evil ; of the Jew first, and also 
of the Gentile" (Rom. 2:9). He then makes the broad and 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 385 

universal generalization, "There is none righteous, no, not 
one" (Rom. 3:10). Then he concludes that "by the deeds of 
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight" (Rom. 
3:20). Since all have sinned and come short of the glory of 
God; since none can be justified by the deeds of the law; 
how shall any man ever be justified? The apostle answers, 
"the righteousness of God without the law is manifest," "even 
the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ 
unto all and upon all them that believe" (Rom. 3:21, 22). 
Justifying righteousness is here characterized as the "right- 
eousness of God," which is represented as imputed to the 
sinner and received by faith. He then illustrated his propo- 
sition with the story of Abraham, the "father of the faithful," 
who was not justified by his works but by the righteousness 
which he received by his faith in God. 

Then in whom does the title of justifying righteousness 
vest? Not in the sinner himself, which would be the case 
were he justified by works, and which would still be the 
case were he justified by some moral, or ceremonial, or evan- 
gelical obedience; but the title to justifying righteousness is 
clearly vested in the Deity, because it is denominated "the 
righteousness of God." 

V. Formal Cause. — But how does the "righteousness of 
God" become the righteousness of the sinner, so that he can 
be dealt with upon that premise? How shall we ground a 
sinner's title to a something which does not naturally belong 
to him? How can we account for his bringing the righteous- 
ness, not of himself, but of another into court and pleading 
what somebody else has done as a reason why he should be 
absolved from all the penal claims of the law? What is the 
peculiar formal nature of the justification of a sinner under a 
scheme of gracious religion? 

He, whose righteousness it is, must bestow it upon the 
sinner. The sinner is not strong enough to forcibly take it 
away from the Deity, and he would be but a blameworthy 
robber if he did secure it in this mode ; he is not adroit enough 



386 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

to outwit the Deity and get this righteousness by cunning 
and craftiness, and he would be a thief if he did so secure it; 
and he cannot perform acts by which he can earn this right- 
eousness of God and so present it in court as a wage he has 
earned or as a commodity which he has purchased. Then 
how does he get it — the righteousness of God? By deed of 
gift. He, whose it is, donates it to him. God graciously im- 
putes it to the sinner. "Imputation" is that theological techni- 
cality which describes the divine action in giving the sinner a 
right and title to the "righteousness of God." It is set down 
to the sinner's account. 

There is nothing abhorrent about "imputation." It is a 
biblical word. It describes that action of God by which he vests 
in the sinner right and title to the merits of Christ. It means 
to reckon, to set down to the account of, to make over to, to 
place to the credit of. The matter here disposed of is the 
righteousness of God which was wrought out by Christ. God 
imputes, places to the credit of the sinner, this righteousness 
of Christ. The technicality tells us how the sinner, at the 
bar of God, comes to be in possession of another's righteous- 
ness. He did not steal it; he did not capture it; he did not 
earn it; he did not buy it; yet he is entitled to it, and can be 
dealt with on the ground that it is his; how did he get it? 
The answer is : By the imputation of grace. He, whose it 
was, gave it to him. "David describeth the blessedness of 
the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without 
works" (Rom. 4:6). "Christ is the end of the law for right- 
eousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10:4). It was 
set down to the account of Abraham, and then he was dealt 
with as righteous with the "righteousness of God." He was 
no highwayman, no thief, no purchaser; he was the benefi- 
ciary of a divine gift. If he did not get the righteousness of 
God by imputation, then how did he come by it? 

Imputation then is that theological and biblical term 
which defines the divine action in making over the righteous- 
ness of Christ to a sinner. There is nothing outrageous in 
supposing that the sinner thus comes into possession of the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 387 

righteousness upon the ground of which he is justified. It 
was God's; he had the right to bestow upon whomsoever he 
desired; he is pleased to set that righteousness down to the 
account of some sinners; who can dispute the legitimacy of 
his so doing? Though the sinner's title in it is by a deed of 
gift, it is yet a valid title. It is his, truly, literally, genuinely 
his; God gave it to him. Being his, he can offer it as a reason 
why he should not be condemned but acquitted and openly 
acknowledged and truly justified. Why not? The righteousness 
he has is bona fide; his title in it is indefeasible; it is his very 
own, albeit it was given to him; why does it not constitute 
a valid and true ground of justification? It is intrinsically a 
worthy reason for acquittal; it is truly the sinner's very own 
by divine gift; where is the immorality and crime in dealing 
with him upon the premise of his facts and his possessions? 

The debtor brings good money into court ; his title in the 
money is genuine, albeit a good friend made him a present 
of every dollar of it; why can he not, in law and justice, can- 
cel his debts with this sound money which is truly and ethi- 
cally and indisputably his? Imputation is that act of God 
which gives to the sinner this money; this sound and com- 
petent money. If he did not get it by divine imputation, how 
did he come by it? It was God's; it grounds his justification; 
if it were not given to him by God, how did he get it? 

Every child is born into this world depraved and con- 
demned; where did he get his depravity and condemnation? 
Did he create it? Did he steal it? Did he rob another? Did 
he buy it? Did he earn it? Where did he get his original 
sin? If not from Adam by imputation, where did it come 
from? "As in Adam, so in Christ." Condemnation was im- 
puted from the first Adam, so that all human beings are ante- 
natally condemned; so justification is imputed from the second 
Adam, so that all Christians are antenatally justified. If the 
sinner does not get the righteousness of Christ from God by im- 
putation, where does he get it from If God gives it to him, 
what is that but saying that God sets it down to his account and 
makes it over to him? 



388 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

Why did Christ suffer and die? Was he personally 
guilty? Was it for the personal sanctification of his char- 
acter? Was his death penal? Was his death disciplinary? 
Do not the Scriptures teach throughout that he suffered and 
died for others than himself? How are the beneficiaries to 
get the benefits of that atonement unless they are set down, 
imputed, to them? If he suffered in the room and stead of 
sinners, it could only have been because he was putatively 
guilty; and if sinners are declared righteous and just in the 
court of God it can be only because they are putatively right- 
eous. The conception of Christ as putatively guilty in order 
to find a basis for his suffering and death is no more violent 
than to conceive of Christians as putatively righteous in 
order to account for a judicial declaration by an omniscient 
and absolutely just God that they are justified from all their 
offences. 

This doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ, as 
the formal nature of justification, stands or falls with the 
entire Calvinistic system; stands or falls with election, the 
covenant of grace, the nature of the atonement as a true 
satisfaction of broken law. By it, imputation, it is intended 
to say that the righteousness of God, in Christ Jesus, is offi- 
cially set down to the account of God's people by Jehovah 
and by this action of his the sinner is given a legal title to 
and an ethical right in the merits of the mediation of the 
Redeemer. Since the work of Christ is indisputably the 
ground of justification, where did the sinner get it, if not by 
gift from God? How else will any man found a sinner's 
ethical and legal claim to the righteousness of Christ if it 
were not given to him by him who had the right to bestow it? 

VI. Instrumental Cause. — While God makes over the 
righteousness of Christ to the sinner by an act of imputation, 
the sinner receives that righteousness by an act of faith. God 
extends the merits of the Saviour's mediation in the hand of 
imputation ; the sinner receives that righteousness by the hand 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 389 

of faith. Faith is the instrumental cause of justification. By 
it the sinner seizes upon the offered righteousness of the Re- 
deemer. Faith is not the ground and reason for the justifi- 
cation of the sinner, but it is the hand which grasps the right- 
eousness of Christ and presents that righteousness as the 
ground and reason for the acquittal of the soul from all the 
guilt of sin. 

The sinner is not justified on account of faith, but he is 
justified by faith. Faith in itself is not the basis upon which 
God declares the sinner not guilty but righteous ; but it is 
what faith holds in its hand, namely, the righteousness of 
Christ, which is the premise of the divine judgment. For 
the righteousness of Christ to be available for justification 
two things are necessary : (a) God must make an assign- 
ment of that righteousness to the sinner, in order that he 
may have a right and title in it, and this the Deity does by 
imputation; (b) and the sinner must himself lay hold upon 
that righteousness and bring it into court as the reason upon 
which he bases his plea for acquittal, and this he does by 
faith. 

"Therefore being justified by faith" (Rom. 5:1). "There- 
fore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the 
deeds of the law" (Rom. 3:28). "Seeing it is one God, which 
shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision 
through faith" (Rom. 3:30). "The righteousness of God is 
revealed from faith to faith" (Rom. 1:17). "By grace are 
ye saved through faith" (Eph. 2:8). 

It defies the wit of man to deny that the Scriptures as- 
sign some important office to faith in justification. Now what 
is that office? There are but two hypotheses: (a) it is the 
ground of justification; or (b) it is the instrument of justifi- 
cation. Insuperable difficulties, already pointed out, emerge 
the moment we construe faith as the ground and reason of 
justification in the court of God. But if we take the tradi- 
tional view and interpret faith as the human hand which lays 
hold upon the merits of Christ and presents those merits as 
the reason and ground of justification, we have an important 



390 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

and indispensable office for faith to perform, which justifies 
all the emphasis which Scripture and theology throw upon 
it; and, at the same time, have a basis for justification upon 
which God can truly rest a judgment of justification without 
the semblance of a farce and without the shadow of any un- 
reality in the pronouncement. 

If a debtor went to the bank and there got the money 
with which he cancelled his debt, it could be truly and ac- 
curately said that he paid his debt by going to the bank, while 
in strict literalness he paid his debt with the money which he 
got at the bank. So a sinner is justified by faith, but he can- 
cels his criminal debt with the righteousness of Christ. God 
imputes that righteousness ; the sinner receives it. 

Described from God's action, the sinner is justified by 
imputation. Described from man's action, the sinner is justi- 
fied by faith. Described from Christ's action, the sinner is 
justified by the righteousness of Christ. Described from the 
impelling motive in the bosom of God, the sinner is justified 
by grace. 

The Scriptures do represent the sinner as being justified 
by grace, by righteousness, by imputation, by faith ; the prob- 
lem is to get the point of view from which these various predi- 
cations are made, or the respective offices grace, righteous- 
ness, imputation and faith play in the justification of a sinner. 

VII. Final Cause. — The immediate results of justification 
are two: (i) Pardon, or forgiveness, or the remission of pun- 
ishment; and (2) Acceptance of the person, or the restoration 
of the sinner to the favour of God. These two effects are 
frequently described as the first and the second elements in 
justification ; but they are more accurately fruits, or sequences, 
or results of justification. Because the sinner is justified, 
therefore God remits the penalty which was assessed on ac- 
count of his transgressions; and because justified, therefore 
God accepts him as righteous and reinstates him in an un- 
challenged citizenship in his blessed kingdom. On account 
of the justifying transaction, the hand-writing which was 
against the sinner is taken away and a hand-writing in his 
favour is entered upon the record. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Adoption 

Man's original relation to God was that of a subject of 
his government and a son in his house. Both relations were 
probationary ; that is, they were conditioned and dependent 
upon his behaviour under the arrangements imposed by his 
Maker. At the beginning his character was holy, and he 
was fit for life both in the divine state and in the divine house. 
Had he stood the tests to which he was subjected ; had he 
successfully endured his probation, he would have been in- 
defectibly and blessedly established, beyond all the possibili- 
ties of falling, both in the society and in the family of God ; 
that is, he would have been both justified as a subject and 
adopted as a son ; his dual relation would have been im- 
mortal and his double blessedness would have been uncontin- 
gent. 

But he sinned and fell. Under the covenant arrangement 
disaster overtook him in both relations. His standing in 
the favour of God as the Ruler of the universe was destroyed 
and his standing in the favour of God as a Father was 
wrecked. His exact status now is that of a proscribed and out- 
lawed citizen on the one hand and a disinherited and outcast 
son on the other. He has neither civil nor filial rights and 
privileges. Having become bad-hearted, he is fit neither for 
divine subjectship nor for divine sonship. If the fall had left 
him good-hearted, then he would have had fitness for posi- 
tions, but no legal right to them. If the fall had affected only 
his subjective character, then he would have had legal rights 
for which he was by nature utterly unfit. The fall affected 
both his legal standing and his personal character, leaving 
him neither titles nor character. He is an outlawed and bad- 
hearted citizen of the kingdom of God ; he is a banished and 
evil minded son of the house of God. He is wrecked every- 
where in all relations and in the center of his moral being. 



39 2 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

This status of his case raises before his mind two serious 
and awful questions : ( i ) How can he regain lost character ; 
(2) How can he regain lost rights and privileges? 

The gospel is the divine prescription for both situations. 
The first problem — relative to lost character — is provided for 
by the doctrines of Regeneration and Sanctification ; the sec- 
ond problem — relative to lost rights — is provided for by Justi- 
fication and Adoption. That is, over against the badness of 
sin you have the Spirit and his regeneration as it expands in 
the broad and thorough work of sanctification ; and over 
against the guilt of sin you have Christ and his atonement 
as they are applied in justification and adoption. 

"All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth, in and for 
his only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of 
adoption ; by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy 
the liberties and privileges, of the children of God ; have his 
name put upon them ; receive the Spirit of adoption ; have ac- 
cess to the throne of grace with boldness ; are enabled to cry, 
Abba, Father; are pitied, protected, provided for and chast- 
ened by him as by a father; yet never cast off, but sealed to 
the day of redemption, and inherit the promises, as heirs of 
everlasting salvation." (West. Conf., Chap. 12). "Adoption 
is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into 
the number, and have a right to all the privileges, of the sons 
of God." 

The efficient cause of adoption — that which brings it into 
being — is the grace of God; forensic, or judicial, grace, as dis- 
tinguished from his dynamic, or witnessing, or any other 
forms of the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit. The 
material cause of Adoption — the ground upon which this 
benefit rests, or the matter out of which it is made — is the 
filial righteousness of Christ — the obedience which he rendered 
as the Son of God, as the Elder Brother in the household of 
God. The Scriptures warrant this distinction between the 
servile obedience of Christ as the voluntary subject of law, 
as the federal head of his people, and his filial obedience which 
he rendered as the Son of God. "Though he were a Son, yet 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 393 

learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." Be- 
cause men were to be redeemed not only as subjects of the 
divine government but also as sons of the Father's house, 
therefore it was necessary that the Redeemer should be flesh 
and blood, partaking of the very nature of those who were to 
be redeemed, identifying himself with them as a true kins- 
man. We have in this fact a hint as to the propriety of the 
selection of the Second Person in the Godhead as the Saviour 
of sinners ; he was the monogenetic Son of God, and through 
this fact, coupled with his incarnation, he was able to pre- 
sent to God not only a Church of citizens but a congrega- 
tion of brethren and sons. The formal nature of adoption — 
that which is peculiar and distinctive about it, differentiating 
it from every other species of adoption — is the imputation of 
the filial obedience of Christ to elect sinners. The domestic 
virtues of our Lord become the possessions of his people be- 
cause grace sovereignly sets them down to the credit of those 
nominated in the divine election. The instrumental cause of 
adoption is faith ; that is, filial faith connects us with the 
filial righteousness of Christ and causes us to enter consci- 
ously into the enjoyment of our divine adoption. The great 
formula of "justification by faith" can be exactly paralleled 
with "adoption by faith." In both instances faith performs 
precisely the same office — the office of an instrumental con- 
nective. The final cause or purpose of adoption is the rein- 
statement of the fallen and disinherited child in his patrimony. 
It gives him legal title to the privileges and pleasures of di- 
vine sonship. It restores to him his property rights in the 
house of many mansions. 

The moment a sinner is united to his Saviour, grace, sim- 
ultaneously and inseparably, effects in him two radical 
changes: (1) A change in his relations to God, and (2) a 
change in his spiritual nature. The first is objective; the 
second is subjective. The first is outward; the second is in- 
ternal. One alters his status; the other alters his heart. Both 
are indispensably essential to the integrity of his conversion. 
A new footing, and a new spirit are his twin needs. 



394 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

For the changed relations, our soteriology has two great 
technicalities — Justification and Adoption. For the new 
changes in character, it likewise has two technicalities — Re- 
generation and Sanctification. Faith performs the catholic 
and persistent office of an instrument — a sine qua non — 
throughout the entire development of Christian experience, 
from regeneration to the glorification of the saint beyond the 
stars. 

The ordo salutis in the theology of the Reformers — the 
successive steps in the logical order of the application of the 
benefits of redemption to the individual sinner — is as follows : 
(i) Regeneration, (2) Faith, (3) Justification, (4) Adoption, 
(5) Sanctification, (6) Glorification. The merits of Christ, 
derived from his atoning death, are assumed at every point 
as the absolutely indispensable pre-condition of the entire 
series of saving acts. Every blessing, from conversion to 
heaven, is conveyed in Christ as the federal head, through 
Christ as the Mediator and on account of Christ as a meri- 
torious ground. He is therefore "all in all." 

For the clearer explication of the subject of Adoption let 
us now put it into comparison with these great acts of the 
Spirit's vocation. 

I. Regeneration conveys seminally the nature of a child ; 
Adoption conveys the rights of a child. 

The distinction between a filial nature and filial rights is 
as real as it is obvious. We often observe in human families 
a child who has all the rights and privileges of the house but 
who is at the same time utterly destitute of the spirit and 
disposition of a child. He is lacking in love and reverence 
and respect and consideration for his parents, under whose 
roof he dwells, whose clothes he wears and whose food he 
eats. He has no sense of the obligations which grow out of 
the fact that he is a member of that family. His spirit is 
that of a stranger and an alien. Yet his rights at the fire- 
side and at the family board are neither disputed nor restricted. 
On the other hand, it is easily conceivable, though not so 
commonly observed, that there may be a son whose heart 



Christian Salvation— Its Doctrine and Experience 395 

palpitates with filial affection, and whose will is fond of his 
father's commands, but whose rights and privileges in the 
house have been annulled and whose inheritance has been cut 
off by the caprice or wickedness of some eccentric parent. 
Or we may imagine, and if we look around we may see chil- 
dren who have neither the temper nor the title of children. 
Their ill-nature has terminated their connection with the 
household. On account of their wantonness, they have been 
cast out of their domicile and cut off from all share in their 
father's estate. They are disinherited and disowned because 
their characters are stript of every filial virtue. 

Such were sinners — disowned, unacknowledged, debarred 
by their Heavenly Father because of the depravity of their 
hearts, the unfilial wickedness of their conduct and their utter 
unfitness for fellowship in his holy family. In their fallen 
state they possess neither the disposition nor the rights of 
children. 

Regeneration communicates the one; Adoption the other. 
In Regeneration the sinner becomes the born-child of God ; 
in Adoption, the law-son and heir. In the one he is made 
the child of God ; in the other he is recognized as a child. One 
act constitutes him a child in nature ; the other acknowledges 
him as a child in law. Both acts are necessary to complete 
the wholeness of his sonship. 

But if he be born by regeneration into the house and 
family of God, where is the propriety of adopting him? Is 
there either sense or fitness in a father adopting his own son? 
Let us remember that the progeny of the first birth was a 
moral monster, which could not be tolerated in the family, 
and we will at once see the propriety of a second birth. Then 
let us remember that a decree of disinheritance was formally 
entered in foro Dei, barring him in law from all the rights and 
privileges of his Father's house, and we can easily see how 
it is necessary that this decree shall be annulled and another 
recognizing him must be entered before he can have legal 
standing in the family of God. Adoption is that act of grace 
wherein God formally and forensically acknowledges the sin- 



396 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

ner to be his son and reinstates him in all his legal rights in 
his house and family. Regeneration without Adoption would 
make the sinner a child without the rights of a child; Adop- 
tion without regeneration would give him the rights of a 
child without the spirit of a child. They are different acts of 
grace, but both are essential. 

To set the heart right, to renew the springs of a dead 
filialness, to awaken the domestic sense — such is the office of 
Regeneration as it affects man contemplated as a son. To 
entitle the alien to cry "Abba, Father," to reinherit the dis- 
inherited, to legally domiciliate the outcast — such is the office 
of Adoption as compared with that of Regeneration. 

II. Faith is the instrumental cause, or indispensable pre- 
condition, or sine qua non, of Adoption. 

Faith is the assent of the mind to whatever is proposed 
upon the ground of testimony. In his definition, assent is 
the logical genus and upon testimony is the differentiating 
mark. It is that specific sort of mental assenting which is 
caused by testimony, evidence, witnessing, or authority. The 
mind may accept the existence of an object present to it upon 
the ground of perception ; this would be Sight. Or the mind 
may accept a truth upon the ground of a longer or shorter 
demonstration ; this would be Reasoning. All mental acts are 
denominated specifically from the nature of their causation. 
Whenever, therefore, we accept anything upon the ground 
of testimony, or whenever the acceptance is caused by any- 
thing like evidence or authority, the conventional name for 
such action is Faith. 

When the Bible is the object presented and we receive 
it as true upon the testimony of history, we exercise historical 
faith. When, however, it is received upon the testimony of 
the Holy Spirit delivered in foro conscientiae , we exercise sav- 
ing faith. When the righteousness of Christ as a Federal 
Head is the specific object presented and that righteousness 
is received upon the witness of the Spirit, we have justifying 
faith. When, however, it is the righteousness of Christ as 
the Elder Brother in the Father's house, which is the object 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 397 

presented and we receive his filial obedience upon the witness 
of the Holy Ghost, we have Adopting Faith. 

The Holy Spirit is the efficient cause of all saving faith, 
but he exerts his efficiency not in the way of naked force but 
in the way of a persuasive and convincing witnessing. But 
there are many varieties, or aspects, or phases of saving faith — 
such as justifying faith, adopting faith, sanctifying faith, as- 
suring faith, and so forth. These are not different species of 
saving faith, for the essence of this grace is always the same, 
but only special phases of it resulting from changing points 
of view. There is a great and glorious variety of benefits 
which accrue +.0 the believer from the mediation of his Re- 
deemer; all these benefits are received by faith, which is 
generi.caM/ denominated saving faith; but these benefits are 
each received individually, and the special act of faith upon 
each of these benefits gives rise to the distinctive characteri- 
zations as justifying, adopting, sanctifying, and so forth. 
Consequently the whole Christian life is a life of faith and all 
its stages are stages of faith. It is the sine qua non of every 
factor in Christian experience. "The life which I now live 
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved 
me, and gave himself for me." Every blessing presented is 
receivable only by that faith which is induced by the wit- 
nessing of the Holy Ghost in the inner consciousness of the 
soul. 

The great Protestant formula — Justification by faith — has 
its exact parallel in — Adoption by faith. I need but one proof- 
text. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to 
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his 
name ; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (Jno. 1 :i2, 14). In 
this passage, "receiving" Christ is a synonym of "believing 
on his name." Those who thus believe on his name have the 
"authority" (power), the right, of the sons of God. This "re- 
ceiving" or "believing on his name," is the result of the wit- 
nessing of the Spirit : "The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Rom. 8:16). 



398 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

III. Justification conveys citizenship in the kingdom of 
God; Adoption conveys sonship in the house of God. 

The distinction between citizenship and sonship is per- 
fectly obvious. One is an abstract term for civil rights ; the 
other for filial rights. One connotes membership in the State ; 
the other, membership in the Family. Human society is both 
— a Polity and a Race. There must be social institutions for 
the protection and well-being of both. The destruction of 
either insures the destruction of the other. They are poles 
of the same magnet; hemispheres of the same sphere. Dis- 
tinct in concept, but twinned in reality. The superlative de- 
sideratum in this life is good Government and a good Home. 
Right-minded men defend both with their treasures and their 
lives. 

The sinner has neither. He is a proscribed and out- 
lawed citizen; a disinherited and outcast son. He is under 
the ban of the divine government : under banishment from the 
heavenly home. Retributive justice follows upon his heels 
with drawn sword; outraged love pursues him with indignant 
anger. He can expect nothing but condemnation in the court 
of God ; nothing but resentment in the house of God. He is 
doomed at the bar; he is doomed at the fireside. He is out 
of favour with God as a Ruler; he is under the displeasure 
of God as a Father. There is no peaceful place for his spirit 
in heaven or earth; he has but one right — the right to die 
and dwell forever with devils in hell. 

Justification recovers his lost citizenship ; Adoption re- 
covers his lost sonship. In justification, he is absolved as a 
subject of government from all the charges of the law and 
he is accepted as a citizen in good standing in the common- 
wealth of God; in adoption, he is absolved from all filial dis- 
obedience and reinstated in all his rights and privileges in 
the house of God. The one introduces him into the Church 
considered as a polity; the other introduces him into that 
Church considered as a family. The one fixes him for ever in 
God's rectoral regard; the other fixes him for ever in God's 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 399 

paternal regard. Justification terminates upon him as a ser- 
vant and subject; Adoption upon him as a son and heir. 

In Justification the civil righteousness of Christ is im- 
puted to the sinner; is received by faith; and upon the ground 
of this righteousness the sinner is reinstated in the kingdom 
of God with all the rights and privileges of a citizen. Adop- 
tion is parallel in nature. It is that act of grace wherein the 
filial righteousness of Christ is imputed; is received by faith, 
and upon the ground of that righteousness the sinner is rein- 
stated in the house of God. They are co-ordinate. They are 
similar in their legal character. But they differ: (1) as to 
their grounds and (2) as to their aims. The ground of the 
justifying act is the servile righteousness of Christ, or his 
obedience as a subject in the kingdom of God; while the 
ground of adoption is the filial obedience of Christ, or his 
obedience as the Son of God. The aim of the justifying act 
is to restore the sinner to citizenship in the kingdom of God; 
while the purpose of the adopting act is to restore him to 
sonship in the house of his Heavenly Father. 

It is quite wrong, therefore, in Turretin to identify adop- 
tion with the second element in justification. The first ele- 
ment is pardon and the second element is the acceptance of 
the person of the sinner, or the bestowal upon him of title to 
eternal life. This great Genevan, therefore, construes adop- 
tion, not as distinct from justification, but as its culmination 
and glory. Dr. Dabney agrees with Turretin, and argues the 
case in this way : "This is evidently correct ; because adoption 
performs the same act for us, in Bible representations, which 
justification does; translates us from under God's curse into 
his fatherly favour. Because its instrument is the same, faith. 
And because the meritorious ground of adoption is the same 
with that of justification, viz.: the righteousness of Christ." 
But the reasoning does not strictly hold. (i) ! Because, while 
justification translates us from under God's magisterial wrath 
into his rectoral favour, adoption, on the other hand, trans- 
lates us from under God's fatherly wrath into his paternal 
favour. (2) Because, while faith performs essentially the 



400 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

same office in both justification and adoption, there is yet this 
difference, viz.: in justification faith apprehends Christ as a 
vicar for legal obligation, while in adoption faith apprehends 
him as a substitute for filial guilt. (3) Because the righteous- 
ness which is the ground of justification is, strictly speaking, 
Christ's servile obedience, or his obedience as the mediatorial 
Servant of God ; while the righteousness which is the ground 
of adoption is the obedience of Christ as a Son, or his filial 
obedience. For he was at once the Mediatorial Servant of the 
kingdom and the Mediatorial Son of God. It would therefore 
seem to be illogical to construe adoption merely as the coping 
of justification. 

Complaint must also be entered against the view of Dr. 
A. A. Hodge, who gives the following description : "Adop- 
tion presents the new creature in his new relations — his new 
relations entered upon with congenial heart, and his new life 
developing in a congenial home, and surrounded with those 
relations which foster its growth and crown it with blessed- 
ness. Justification effects only a change in relations. Re- 
generation and Sanctification effect only inherent moral and 
spiritual states of the soul. Adoption includes both. As set 
forth in Scripture, it embraces in one complex view the newly- 
regenerated creature in the new relations into which he is in- 
troduced by Justification." This great theologian thus con- 
strues Adoption as a genus, having Regeneration, Justifica- 
tion and Sanctification as its species or varieties. It is thus 
the culminating blessing into which all the processes of grace 
finally ultimate. It would, therefore, seem to be identified 
with Glorification. But Adoption is that forensic act of grace 
whereby the regenerated and justified sinner is received into 
the number and given all the rights and privileges of the sons 
of God. Regeneration is that act of grace which gives the 
sinner a filial spirit in its rudimentary form. Justification is 
that forensic act of grace whereby the regenerated skiner is 
received into the number and given all the rights and privi- 
leges of the servants and subjects of God. Consequently, 
Adoption does something for the believer entirely distinct 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 401 

from these other forementioned graces. They are, therefore, 
not mere phases of Adoption, but acts of divine grace truly 
distinct from it. 

Justification and Adoption are alike, (1) in that they are 
both objective, effecting changes, not in the subjective char- 
acter, but in the believer's relations to God; (2) and in that 
they are both forensic acts, in which God formally acknowl- 
edges and proclaims the new relations which have been con- 
stituted by his grace. But they are unlike, (1) in that they 
terminate upon different relations — one upon the servile, and 
the other upon the filial; (2) and in that they convey two 
distinct blessings — one legal citizenship in the kingdom of 
God, and the other legal sonship in the house of God. One 
act repatriates ; the other reinherits. One nationalizes, the 
other affiliates. They are partitive acts in the great scheme of 
salvation, performing two distinct offices in the restoration 
of the sinner to God. 

IV. Adoption is a title-deed to Heaven as a Home ; Sanc- 
tification communicates the fitness necessary for a blissful 
residence in that Home. 

The glorified saints may be thought of as a body of citi- 
zens, basking in the favour of their Sovereign, delighted with 
their position, spontaneous in their obedience, swift-footed in 
the discharge of commands, exulting in all divine precepts, 
abounding in the fellowship of one another, crowned with 
glory and honor before the burning throne of their Lord. Or 
they may be thought of as a Heavenly Family, a Holy Broth- 
erhood, possessing all the domestic virtues and graces of 
character, superabounding in fraternal love and exuberant in 
the confidence, affection and companionship of their Heavenly 
Father. Both conceptions are true beyond the heart of man 
to foreimagine. 

Plunged into such a household the unsanctified sinner 
would be miserable. Everything would be uncongenial. All 
his appetencies would be for other companions and other em- 
ployments. His moral gravitation would be away from all 
his surroundings. His religious polarity would be contrary 



402 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

to all his associations. The glory of God would blind his 
eyes and the goodness of God would freeze his heart. He 
would be out of his element, out of sympathy, a wretched 
misfit. Fire could not be more painful to sensitive flesh than 
would the holiness of the heavenly society be to his corrupt 
spirit. Happiness is harmony;, misery is disharmony. The 
"prodigal son" could not endure his father's house. 

But not only would a depraved taste render heavenly 
life insipid and intolerable to one introduced in an unsancti- 
fied condition into the family of God, but it would also in- 
sure his apostacy from his position in the family. "Out of 
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" is not only 
a law of Scripture but a doctrine of common experience. "A 
corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit" is a dictum of our 
Lord. "A bitter fountain cannot send forth sweet water." 
A depraved heart is a corrupt tree, a bitter fountain. Out 
of such a heart would proceed all manner of evil words, un- 
filial feelings, disobedient conduct, infracting the discipline 
and peace of the heavenly family. An evil nature would 
operate in the surroundings of glory precisely as it does in 
the environment of earth. It is what is in a man that comes 
out of him ; not that which is in his surroundings. The vicious 
character would be true to itself and insure banishment from 
the heavenly house just as it has secured expulsion from God's 
presence in this life. 

These are truisms for a member of the family as well as 
for a member of the kingdom. They demand the office of 
sanctification for the son as imperatively as for the subject. 
Subjective evil must be purged away; meetness for fellowship 
in the house of God must be communicated that life in that 
circle may be congenial and blessed, secure and perpetual. A 
bare legal title would not be sufficient to attain the ends con- 
templated. It is conceivable that a child in human society 
may have, by the ordination of providence, the rights of a 
family, in which he is utterly incapable of appreciating the 
parents, whom he cannot love because his spirit is alien to 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 403 

theirs, a home-life in law which is utterly irksome in fact, 
an estate for whose enjoyment he has not the faintest in- 
stinct, an inheritance for which he has no fitness. A legal 
right to cross a father's threshhold and fitness of nature to 
dwell under his sacred roof are entirely distinct matters. The 
one may exist without the other. 

"Meet for the saints' inheritance in light" — it is Adoption 
which creates the "inheritance" but it is Sanctification which 
creates "the meetness." This exactly differentiates the offices 
of these two graces in the scheme of grace. One terminates 
upon character and transmutes it into Christlikeness ; the other 
terminates upon a relation to God and transforms it into a 
legal sonship. One transplants the sinner from the family 
of Satan into the family of God ; the other fits him subjectively 
for genuine happiness in that relation. Sanctification makes a 
good son and Adoption makes a lawful son. 

I have now compared Adoption with the other cardinal 
acts of saving grace for the purpose of showing its theologi- 
cal position and its definitive office in soteriology. It is the 
office of Regeneration to create, incipiently, a filial spirit; of 
Adoption, to convey filial rights. It is the office of Faith to 
receive, as an instrumental hand, those merits of the Saviour's 
mediation which constitutes the grounds of Adoption. It is 
the office of Justification to restore, indefectibly, a lost citi- 
zenship in the kingdom of God ; of Adoption, to restore, im- 
mutably, a forfeited sonship in the house and family of God. 
It is the office of Sanctification to communicate meetness for 
sonship in the Father's home as well as fitness for member- 
ship in the Ruler's kingdom ; of Adoption, to put into the hand 
indefeasible titles to the heavenly inheritance considered as a 
patrimony. It is therefore entitled to be considered as a dis- 
tinct, co-ordinate, and glorious head in divinity. Three reasons 
support this decision. 

. 1. It promotes clearness. Regeneration is a step in Sanc- 
tification, the initial step; yet it is distinguished from this 
great work of grace in the interest of a more crystal develop- 



404 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

ment. Birth and growth are considered separately in nature, 
yet one is but the beginning of the other. Conscience may be 
regarded as an aspect of the reason as it deals with moral 
matters, yet it is conducive to the science of ethics to treat 
it as a separate faculty. So, while Adoption coincides with re- 
generation at one point and with Justification at another and 
with Sanctification at another, all because the scheme of grace, 
however analyzed in thought, is in reality a unit, it is emi- 
nently helpful in the comprehension of the scence of soteriology 
to regard it as a separate article in the Christian system. The 
articulation is primarily made for the sake of analytical con- 
venience. 

2. But there are real facts which require this articulation. 
The elements of redemption fall apart into two general classes 
— those which are external and objective in their natures and 
those which are internal and subjective in their natures ; that 
is, those which being done for sinners affect their legal stand- 
ing and those which being done in them affect their hearts and 
characters. The first group are symbolized in Scripture by 
Blood ; the second group are symbolized by Water. A more 
exact statement of the case is this : (1) There are two changes 
made in the sinner's relations to God, made by Justification and 
Adoption, the one confirming them as members of the king- 
dom of God and the other confirming them as members of the 
family of God; and (2) there are two changes in their natures, 
effected by Regeneration and Sanctification, the one initiatory 
of a new life and the other gradually developing it into com- 
plete harmony with the character of God. The first are uni- 
fied under the symbol of Blood; the second are unified under 
the symbol of Water. If the analysis is warranted with re- 
spect to the Water elements, it is likewise justified with re- 
spect to the Blood-elements. Theological science has long 
ago vindicated the distinction between Regeneration and Sanc- 
tification; a parallel distinction between Justification and 
Adoption ought to be recognized. The following tabular ex- 
hibition is offered for greater clearness. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 405 
Redemption 



Objective or Legal Elements Subjective or Internal Elements 

I I 

Symbolized by Blood Symbolized by Water 



Justification Adoption Regeneration Sanctification 

II I I 

Subject Son Subject and Son Subject and Son 

3. Adoption deserves to be singled out as a special head 
in soteriology and not merged with other grand doctrines, be- 
cause the filial relation is too conspicuous, too important and 
too precious to be sunk into a general consideration. It is an 
exhibition of unspeakable love for God to bring back man to 
himself a disobedient and run-away slave, but grace is mag- 
nified upon grace, and love is laid over upon love with more 
than a threefold thickness, when man as the child of sin and 
banishment is translated from the family of Satan into the 
family of God's dear Son and made an heir to a glory incor- 
ruptible, undented and that fades not away. The grace of 
Adoption deserves to be richly magnified by all those who 
glory in the achievements of divine grace. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

''Good Works" in a Scheme of Grace 

The Scriptures, throughout and persistently, distinguish be- 
tween "works" and "grace." They present us with two schemes 
of religion — the religion of "works" and the religion of "grace." 
The generic form of all biblical religion is federal, and under this 
heading there are the two covenants — the Covenant of "Works" 
and the Covenant of "Grace." Besides these two — "works" and 
"grace" — there is no third variety of religion discoverable in 
Divine Revelation. 

A "work" is definable as anything done by man — no matter 
how large or small the deed nor whether it be a mental or a 
physical act. Of a "work" man is the efficient cause — no matter 
whether his causative power be regarded as primary or secondary, 
original or derived ; that is, the source of his power, whether 
from within or from without, whether he is enabled by God or 
by circumstances, or by his own will — the origination of the 
power by which he performs the "work" does not enter into the 
account in such a manner as to change the definition. In a scheme 
of religion developed by "works" man is not a patient, acted 
upon, but an agent, acting, doing, performing; and it is imma- 
terial to the definition whether he be thought of as a first cause 
or as a second cause in the acting, the doing or the performing. 
Adam ate the forbidden fruit ; his eating was a "work," a deed ; 
the ability to eat was derived from the Creator. Our Lord obeyed 
the Moral Law in both its preceptive and penal demands; his 
conduct, quoad hoc, an atoning "work" ; the power by which he 
obeyed was the result of his theanthropic constitution. A plow- 
man fallows his land, or a mason builds a stone wall, or a ser- 
vant performs the task assigned by his master ; all the strength, 
the intelligence, the energies, engaged in these labors are not 
originated by the workmen, but are traceable to the hand of their 
Maker; nevertheless, they are strictly and properly their "works." 
It would obliterate the possibility of any "work," of any kind 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 407 

whatever, to describe it as a deed which an agent performs by 
virtue of a power which he has antecedently originated. All 
human power is created and dependent power. A "work" is any 
effect of human power. 

A "grace," on the other hand, is a gift, without any reference 
whatever to the substance, the form, or the value of the gift. It 
may be material, like money ; it may be mental, like intelligence ; 
it may be spiritual, like faith and repentance. It may be given 
directly or indirectly, as when a donor places his benefaction 
with his own hand into the hand of the beneficiary, or sends his 
beneficence, as through the United States mail. A "grace" is a 
donation ; neither the nature of the gift, nor the mode of mak- 
ing it, enters into the essence of the definition. 

The benefits of religion are obtainable, theoretically speak- 
ing, in either of these modes — by a mode of "works" or by a 
mode of "grace." Money may be obtained ex labore, or ex gratia. 
If in the one way, it is a "wage;" if in the other way, it is a 
"present." The "wages of sin" and the "gift of God" is a biblical 
contrast. All the blessings of religion, summarily comprehended 
under the notion of heavenly happiness, are obtainable, abstractly 
speaking, in either way — ex labore, or ex gratia. Primarily they 
were offered as a "wage" to be earned ; but man having failed in 
his task and so lost the promised reward, God was pleased to 
offer him the same blessings ex gratia, as gifts of His love in- 
stead of rewards for his service. 

The Scriptures distinctly teach us that the relation between 
"works" and "grace" is a relation of contrast and opposition. 
They mutually exclude each other. If you hold your money ex 
labore, then your title in it is not ex gratia; and if you own it 
ex gratia, then you do not hold it ex labore. So if the benefits 
of religion are secured ex labore, then they are not obtainable 
ex gratia; and vice versa. "If there had been a law given which 
could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by 
the law" . . . (Gal. 3:21). "If righteousness come by the 
law, then Christ is dead in vain" . . . (Gal. 2:21). "There- 
fore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight" 
(Romans 3:20). Salvation, with all its contents, is by 



408 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

"grace" because it could not be by "works." If it could have 
been by "works," then it would have been ex labore and not ex 
gratia. The human laborer has broken down; he has fallen by 
the way; if he ever reaches heaven, he must be carried to the 
skies, because he cannot walk. The relation between "works" 
and "grace" is not the relation of polarity, such as exists between 
positive and negative electricity; nor is it the relation of affinity, 
such as exists between water and quicklime ; but it is the relation 
of opposition and exclusiveness, such as exists between light and 
darkness, life and death. 

In the scheme of "works" man is an agent; in a scheme of 
"grace" he is a patient. In the one, he is a wage hand ; in the 
other, he is a beneficiary. A saint, under the one scheme, would 
be self-made; a saint, under the other scheme, would be grace- 
made. One scheme provides for the justification of a righteous 
man, ex labore; the other provides for the justification of a 
sinner, ex gratia. Under both, the blessing, summarily described 
as heaven, is the same, but the subject is different under each; 
under the (5ne he is active, and under the other he is passive, 
under the one he is innocent ,and under the other he is guilty ; 
under the one he is competent, and under the other he is incompe- 
tent. Under one scheme the mode of obtaining the blessing is 
ex labore ; under the other, the mode is ex gratia. The two sys- 
tems, therefore, cannot be conjointly operated. They mutually 
bar each other. If man has his career under one, he cannot have 
his career at the same time under the other. 

But the Scriptures insistently require that the subject of 
"grace" shall also be a doer of "works." They pointedly press 
it upon believers that, "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, 
they should live soberly and righteously and godly in this pres- 
ent world." "What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but 
to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love 
him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with 
all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his 
statutes, which I commanded thee this day for thy good ?" . 
(Duet. 10:12). This programme of religious life contains a 
large schedule of obediences. James also laid down the maxim 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 409 

in his practical epistles, "that faith without works is dead." . . . 
(James 2:20). It surpasses the wit of man to exclude "works" 
from that system of gracious religion which is inculcated in the 
Scriptures and preached by an evangelical pulpit. 

The Antinomians, under the leadership of John Agricola 
(1538), standing upon the premise that "works" and "grace" are 
mutually exclusive, flatly denied that there was any logical place 
for "works" in a system of "grace," or that there was any prac- 
tical utility in human obedience in the evangelical programme of 
the gospel. From this point of view the religion of "grace" is 
fairly resolvable into a religion of licentiousness. Libertinism, 
while not the historic result of Christianity, was, according to 
this party, clearly its logical consequence. 

Arminians, ever on the alert to stingingly criticise their Cal- 
vinistic opponents, have zealously and persistently identified it 
with Antinomianism. Because the Gospel strenuously excludes 
"works" from the religion of "grace" they preposterously con- 
clude that the Calvinistic interpretation of the scheme excludes all 
"works" from personal holiness. They concede that men do not 
gather grapes from bramble vines nor figs from thistle bushes, 
but they claim that they ought to do so. That is, Calvinism, while 
historically virtuous, ought to be vicious. The practical goodness 
and conscientious scrupulousness of Calvinistic lives are, Armin- 
ians being the judges, glorious inconsistencies. 

These criticisms challenge the Calvinistic theology to find 
the place and to define the office of good "works" in a scheme 
of "grace." But the apologetic motive is not the whole reason, 
nor the main reason, why we should make these definitions and 
descriptions. The Scriptures present us a problem, and our love 
of truth and clearness and consistency unite in demanding that 
we meet it squarely and solve it truly. "Works" and "grace" 
are set forth in revelation as opposites, and we are distinctly 
taught that sinners are saved not ex lab ore but ex gratia. But we 
are also taught that Christians must "work" as well as "believe," 
must "do" as well as "receive." The problem is real and difficult. 
It has had a wide influence upon the history of doctrine, been a 
bone of contention among religious parties and a cause of dis- 



410 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

turbance in the conscience of many Calvinists. What is the 
logical place of "works" in a system of "grace?" What is the 
office of good deeds in Christian life? What is the proper re- 
lation between Christian life and Christian conduct? 

First. Human conduct plays no part in the Justification 
of the sinner. 

Justification is a change in status. It is primarily in foro 
Dei and secondarly in foro conscientiae. The sinner as guilty is 
under proscription of the law and without civil standing in the 
magisterial favour of God. He has no legal rights and no stand- 
ing in law. Justification repatriates him — conveys to him legal 
life and gives him footing in the rectoral regard of God. It re- 
moves the cloud from his title to citizenship, clears away all pre- 
cariousness in law and registers the sinner as a member of the 
Divine Commonwealth in good and regular and indefeasible 
standing 1 before God. The right to be redeemed must precede 
and condition the right of the Spirit to operate subjectively upon 
the character and behaviour of sinful men. A change in char- 
acter and through character and, consequentially, a change in 
conduct, is the ultimate goal of all the schemes of gracious re- 
ligion. The great desideratum is a good character and a good 
conduct — both a character and a conduct, each without blemish 
under the eagle eye of divine Justice. But antecedently, the legal 
right to produce these changes must be secured. The object 
of justification is to entitle the bad sinner to be made into a 
good saint. 

Now in justification human conduct, or "works," can per- 
form no part whatsoever, and for these reasons : 

I. The Scriptures categorically teach us that "works" are 
excluded therefrom. "By the deeds of the law there shall 
no flesh be justified in his sight." That is a square denial that 
"deeds" can be employed in justification. But not only this 
negative; we are told pointblank that we are "justified by 
grace." This is clear: we are not justified by "works" — we are 
justified by "grace." The Pharisee and the Publican — in the 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 411 

parable — are presented to us in the temple ; both in quest of 
the same thing — justification ; the Pharisee was a man of good 
character and of good behaviour — not extortionate, not unjust, 
not unclean, but scrupulous in moral behavior and punctilious in 
the discharge of religious duties; the Publican, on the contrary, 
was pictured as namelessly wicked — extortionate, unjust, 
adulterous, without conscience and without even the sem- 
blance of religion; yet the Publican was justified and the 
Pharisee condemned. If judgment had been rendered upon 
the ground of the relative decency and goodness of the two 
men, the Pharisee would have been justified and the Publican 
condemned ; because the Pharisee was a better man than the 
Publican, according to all human standards. We are obliged 
to infer that human character and human conduct, according 
to our Gospel, play no part of any kind in justification. The 
best man is condemnable; the worst man is justifiable — upon 
what premise? Upon the premise that God pronounces the 
judgment of justification upon some other ground, upon some 
different data, than those presented by those with whom he 
deals. The judgment of justification has a basis; but the 
Gospel explicitly rules out of the count — throws out of Court — 
absolutely every fact which the sinner can present. "Works" 
are severely and rigorously excluded. "The thief on the cross" 
may be justified and; the law-abiding and moral citizen and 
zealous churchman of Jerusalem may be damned. And upon 
what premise? Upon the premise that human conduct and 
human character — human "works" and human "deeds" — do 
not figure in such a transaction. 

2. All human "works" are excluded from justification 
because that transaction is distinctly said to be based upon 
the "works" of Christ. We are justified either upon the 
ground of our own righteousness ; or upon the ground of 
somebody else's righteousness. These alternatives are ex- 
haustive; no other supposition can be made. We are not 
justified upon the ground of our own "works" because we are 
pointedly told that we are justified upon the ground of the 
"works" of Christ. Two bodies cannot occupy the same point 



412 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

in space at the same time. If the sinner is justified upon the 
ground of what Christ did, he is not justified upon the ground 
of what he himself does; and if he is justified upon the ground 
of what he himself does, he is not justified upon the ground 
of what Christ did. If we base our justification upon our- 
selves, we cannot base it upon Christ. One, or the other; it 
cannot be both. The "work" of Christ effectually displaces 
the "work" of man. 

3. The "works" of man are entirely shut out from justi- 
fication because they are always and inevitably more or less 
imperfect. That conduct which can be said to entitle a man 
to justification in a court of absolute intelligence and justice 
must be entirely free of the least flaw, because true judg- 
ment must be rendered according to the fact, and, if the sub- 
ject is only relatively good judgment must be pronounced in 
accordance with that fact ; that is, he could be only relatively 
justified. A course of human conduct to be absolutely good 
must be so from the beginning to the end ; it must be marred 
neither by commissions nor by omissions ; it must be both 
formally and materially good ; it must be in accord with the 
demands of duty and it must spring from the proper motive. 
No course of human conduct is thus absolutely correct. At 
some time, at some point, there has been blunder or wrong; 
it is always qualified by the impurity of heart from which it 
issues, on the principle that the stream is like the fountain. 
Until perfectly sanctified and glorified, there is no human 
heart which is taintless. Human motive is always more or 
less compromised. With all the subjects of God's moral gov- 
ernment possessed of hearts depraved in one degree or an- 
other, and with a Judge who always sees correctly and feels 
truly and pronounces exactly, any scheme of justification con- 
ditioned upon human conduct and human character must be 
purely theoretical and impracticable. The man has never 
lived since the fall of Adam who could comply with such 
conditions and meet such demands. All apparent cases of 
this kind in the Scriptures are hypothetical. All instances re- 
ferred to in profane history are the creatures of imperfect 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 413 

biography. "None are righteous ; no, not one." There is no 
absolutely sinless human being, other than Jesus of Nazareth. 

4. But grant, for argument's sake, the existence of an 
absolutely sinless man, still there is no promise of his justifi- 
cation. To justify is to terminate probation — to put an end 
to trial — to end all precariousness of moral standing — to con- 
firm and to render indefectible in righteousness and holiness. 
The justification of an accused man in the civil court not 
only acquits him of the charges and dismisses him from the 
custody of the officers of the law, but it confirms him, quoad hoc, 
in his civil and political and social privileges — takes him out of 
jeopardy and puts him in security. The analogy holds with re- 
spect to justification in foro Dei. If therefore a man were born 
innocent, and continued sinless all his days in the earth, God has 
entered into no engagement to end his probation and confirm his 
standing at death, or after death. He would not be damnable 
as long as he was innocent and obedient, but there is no promise 
on the part of God, at some given moment, to take away from 
him the potestas peccare, the removal of which is the very es- 
sence of justification. The divine covenant with such a character 
is, "Do, and while you do, and only so long as you do, shall you 
live. Disobey, at one point, at any time, in all the stretch of your 
immortality, and that instant you are condemned, and you die." 
God's engagement with Adam was quite different. With him 
he entered into a covenant that if he would obey for a season 
and in respect to a particular matter, then the Maker would sov- 
ereignly put an end to probation and terminate the possibility of 
falling. That arrangement was made with Adam only, but with 
no other member of the human family. Consequently, if one 
could live up to and through death a sinless being, he would die 
without the promise that death would be the mordant of his pro- 
bation — the annihilation of the potestas peccare. This concep- 
tion of the case excludes "works" from justification. 

5. There is another idea that is effective in excluding "works" 
from all place and all influence in the justification of sinners. 
Before a man can earn wages ex labore he must have right to 
zvork. It is not every laborer in the country who is permitted at 



414 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

his own option to become a workman upon any "job." He must 
antecedently be employed, engaged, authorized. Before the la- 
borers could work in the vineyard, it was necessary that the 
landlord "hire" them. Before a sinner can lawfully set out to 
"work" out his salvation, he must be engaged to that end by the 
divine Master. This is precisely what is done in justification — 
it puts into a sinner's hand the legal authority to become God's 
workman. It follows, therefore, that justification must precede 
all "doing" and condition its very legality, and it cannot, conse- 
quently, come after "works" and be conditioned upon deed and 
behaviour. This is a point too frequently overlooked. The right 
to "work" is not one which every man possesses ex natura, by 
virtue of his creaturehood. He has forfeited that right by sin- 
ning — his infidelity to trust, his incompetency, his bad-hearted- 
ness have caused his discharge from his Master's service. He 
stands before God a dishonored, a discredited, a dismissed ser- 
vant. He can get employment only at the Master's will. He is 
out of favor with that Employer. Justification reinstates him 
in the good-will of God as his Lord and Master. It must precede 
and condition "works." 

These arguments are adequate to support the proposition 
that human "works," whatever their nature or quality, have 
absolutely no place in a scheme of justification by "grace." Con- 
sequently, God, in justifying sinners, completely ignores human 
character and conduct. The record neither of the best nor of the 
worst of men receives as much as a passing notice. His justifica- 
tion of sinners is purely and solely ex gratia. In his Court the 
most moral and the most debased are on an equal footing where 
all are guilty sinners. 

According to the Pelagian, Rationalistic, or Ethical gospel 
God justifies men upon the ground of their character and con- 
duct ; what men are, and what they do, determines the judgments 
upon them. Human "works" are introduced as the ground of 
justification in such a manner as to exclude "grace" in reality, 
however it may be given a verbal place in the system. The 
moral gospel fairly issues in a scheme of justification ex labore. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 415 

According to Arminians, Semi-Pelagians, and all Neono- 
mians, "works" are first transmuted into "gracious works" and 
then made the grounds of justification. This transmutation is 
effected in a very sophistical manner. The fallen will, ex natura, 
is impotent, but "grace" potentiates it, and then it "works,' 
and the products are denominated "gracious works. Thus the 
scheme of "grace" rehabilitates the scheme of "works" and fuses 
with it. The relation, then, between "works" and "grace" is not 
the relation of opposition, but the relation rather of affinity, like 
the relation of oxygen and hydrogen which yearn for each other. 
The high purpose of "grace" is not to save, but to enable the 
sinner to save himself. "Evangelical obedience," rather than the 
obedience of Christ, becomes the raison d'etre of redemption. 
Justification, in this view, is ex gratia et ex labore. This solves 
the problem concerning "works" by raising a harder question 
concerning "grace." This solution is destroyed by the text, "And 
if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no 
more grace. But if it be by works, then it is no more grace ; 
otherwise work is no more work.". . . . (Romans 11 :i6). Men 
impose upon their own minds when they preach salvation by 
"grace," and then explain "grace" to be equivalent to "gracious 
works." A truer representation of such a gospel would be, we 
are saved by "works," but these "works" are not natural "works" 
but "gracious works." It would then be necessary to define a 
"work" as something done by man and "grace" as a power which 
enables him to do something and a "grace" as a "something done 
by grace." This explanation makes "grace to be no more "grace," 
but a species of "work." 

The Romish party grapples with our problem and seeks to 
solve the difficulty by distinguishing between two sorts of justi- 
fication — justificatio prima, and justificatio secunda. The first 
justification is ex gratia, in ecclesiastical baptism ; the second 
justification is ex labore, in obedience to ecclesiastical law. 
"Works" cannot wipe out original guilt ; that must be done by 
"grace," but "works" must atone for and cancel post-baptismal 
sins. In this scheme "grace" gives an ecclesiastical status ; and 
individual "works" perfect the life of that standing. "Works" 



4i 6 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

and "grace," consequently, are not mutually exclusive, but com- 
bine — "grace" producing the first justification and "works" the 
second justification. But in the Scriptures, "Being justified 
freely by his grace," is synonymous with "being justified by faith 
without the deeds of the law." (Romans 3:28.) 

It is left, therefore, for the Calvinistic soteriology to main- 
tain the Scripture doctrine that "works" of every kind — whether 
"natural," or "gracious," or "ecclesiastical" — are excluded from 
every place and from all influence in the justification of sinners. 
Whatever may be the position and use of "good works" in the 
plan of salvation, the Calvinistic soteriology insists that they have 
absolutely nothing to do with justification. 

Second : "Works are as rigidly excluded from sanctification 
as they are from justification. Whatever may be 
their office in a system of "grace," they do not 
sanctify sinful life. 

The superlative desideratum of all religion — the terminus ad 
quern of all its operation — is Conduct. To obtain this result — 
correct behaviour — is the proximate final cause of all divine reve- 
lation and of all divine institutions. This is the object upon which 
the heart of God is set. At the close of the wondrous march of 
his providence over men and angels of which the Bible traces his 
footsteps — as the consummation of his manifold dealings with his 
intelligent creatures of all kinds — by much sacrifice and long wait- 
ing — as the final triumph of "grace" — God writes over the door- 
way of heaven, "And his servants shall serve him" ... (Revelation 
22 13) . These words express the divine satisfaction with the work 
of his gracious hands. They remind us of those laudatory words 
which he uttered when he beheld the primal creation of his power, 
and declared all to be "very good." As he contemplates the white- 
robed multitude whom he has gathered by "grace" out of the 
nations of the earth, engaged in the solemnities and delights of 
heavenly worship, he seems to cry out in the exultation of 
achieved purpose and in the infinitude of satisfaction, "Now they 
are forever obedient and well-behaved." If the chiefest end of 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 417 

God in all gracious operations among men is the glorification of 
his perfections, the next highest end is such human conduct as will 
delight his heart. 

To achieve this end — to realize a human Conduct which 
shall be perfectly satisfactory to the Deity — there are two pre- 
conditions which are indispensably necessary: (1) a right to 
"work" and (2) a heart to "work." A workman who has not 
been authorized to do what he does is an offensive intruder ; and a 
workman who has been formally engaged, but is bad-spirited — 
having no sympathy with his Master, no appreciation of his pur- 
poses and aims, no zeal for success, no devotion to the enterprise, 
no congeniality with the task — who finds his duties to be drudg- 
eries, his orders irksome, his position galling, his appetencies aver- 
sions, his heart bitter and antagonistic — such a workman would 
be a nuisance. To manage such a crew of laborers, God must 
needs convert himself into an Egyptian task-master or into an 
offensive slave-driver. To obtain satisfactory service, God must 
either convert himself into an offensive character, or he must con- 
vert the sinner into an agreeable and harmonizing laborer. The 
Scriptures show us that the change will be made in the servant 
and not in the Master. 

Justification gives the sinner the right to "work" ; Salifica- 
tion gives him the heart to "work." As a sinner he is a discharged 
servant and an ill-natured creature, possessing neither the privi- 
leges nor the fitness for service in the employment of God. Justi- 
fication gives him a new status; Sanctification gives him a new 
habitus. Legal right is the grant of one ; moral character is the 
benediction of the other. One defines a title to service ; the other 
the quality of service. Both are indispensably necessary. Neither 
is ex lab ore; both are ex gratia. Neither the right nor the spirit 
of a satisfactory workman is communicated by "works"; both are 
imparted by "grace." 

That Salification is ex gratia and not ex labore is proved by 
the following arguments : 

I. The Scriptures explicitly so teach. One group of texts 
represent the Father as the author of sanctification. "The very 
God of peace sanctify you wholly"... (1 Thess. 5:23). "The God 



4i 8 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

of peace make you perfect in every good work to do his will, 

working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through 
Jesus Christ." (Heb. 13:20, 21). According to these state- 
ments, the worker in santification is God, and the subject worked 
upon is man. Another group of texts teach us that it is the 
Son of God who is the efficient cause of the purification of the 
Christian heart. "That he (Christ) might sanctify and cleanse it 
(the Church) with the washing of water by the word, that he 
might present it unto himself a glorious Church, not having spot, 
or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and with- 
out blemish".... (Eph. 5:26, 27). "Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who 
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, 
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." 
. . (Titus 2:13, 14). A third group of passages represent the Holy 
Spirit of God as the sanctifying efficient. "But ye are washed, 
but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God"....(i Cor. 6:11 ). "Go<* 
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanc- 
tification of the Spirit and belief of the truth".... (2 Thess. 
2 :i3). There is not a fourth group predicating of man that he is 
the efficient agent of his own sanctification. Instead, therefore, 
of working himself into a good character — instead of "living 
down" the bad reputation he has made before God, men and 
angels — this character and good name are wrought in him by 
the Triune God. 

2. Instead of character being the product of conduct, conduct 
is the product of character — character is cause and conduct is 
effect. This is Scripture and common sense. The vine makes 
the grapes ; not the grapes the vine. The tree qualifies the fruit ; 
not the fruit the tree. Out of the heart are the issues of life ; not 
the heart out of the issues of life. As a man thinketh in his heart 
so is he ; not that deeds produce thoughts. Purpose is the matrix 
of acts ; not acts the matrix of purpose. "Grace" is the cause of 
"works" ; not "works" the cause of "grace." Men do good 
because they are good ; they are not made good by doing good. 
"Grace" is the genesis of character; character is the genesis of 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 419 

conduct. Nothing but confusion and illogical absurdity can result 
from reversing the order — "Practice makes perfect" — is true in 
the realm of Providence, but it is an abounding heresy in 
the realm of "grace. " By judicious exercise, physical manhood 
may be developed to its highest possible perfection, but a sinner 
could never exercise himself into a saint. By the indulgence of 
appetite habit may be established, but by indulging ourselves with 
persistence and abandon in holy exercises we could never acquire 
a settled character of holiness. The article is not made in this 
mode — non ex lab ore, sed ex gratia. 

3. But if good character were producible by good behaviour 
as an original proposition, such a method would not be available 
for sinners. All their "works" are more or less bad ; and if char- 
acter must be generated by "works," then we would have the illog- 
ical process of producing a perfect effect by an imperfect cause. 
The effect can never be greater or better than the cause. An 
eternal series of imperfect acts could not issue in a perfect char- 
acter. If a thorn-bush should bear figs for a hundred centuries, 
it would still be a thorn-bush. If a man performed the acts of an 
angel for a million of years, he would not transmute his species or 
change his identity. Character lies below conduct and is not within 
the reach of conduct ; how much more does it lie below the range 
and influence of imperfect conduct ? The sinner cannot be trans- 
formed into a saint ex lab ore; because the imperfect could not, in 
an eternity of effort, evolve the perfect. Species are immutable ; 
"Like begets like" ; nature is uniform ; everything after its own 
kind. To change the genesis, the supernatural must be invoked. 
A sinner can be altered into a saint ex gratia, but never ex lab ore. 
When cabbages can bear carrots, or tadpoles breed men, then — 
but not until then, when all nature has reversed itself — can sin- 
ners evolve themselves into saints. No bad man can ever make 
himself a good man by practising religious duties. 

4. That character cannot be produced by conduct — that 
sanctification cannot be by "works" — is further proved by the 
fact that, if it were so originated, it would be intrinsically meri- 
torious and bring God under obligation to man. The hypothesis 



420 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

supposes man — a sinful man at that — to be a creator — a creator 
of character, of a holy character, the sublimest product of all 
creative energy, overtopping in importance and glory all suns 
and moons and stars as specimens of creative taste and power. 
No sinless creature, and particularly no sinful creature, can possi- 
bly merit anything of its Maker. Says Dr. Thornwell, "The source 
of the error in many minds is the unfounded notion that grace is 
whatever is opposed to merit. They judge of the former by com- 
paring it with the latter, and hence they suppose that they are con- 
tending for salvation by grace when they are only denying salvation 
by merit. According to the conception which we usually frame of 
merit in our intercourse with one another, it is impossible that 
a man can deserve anything at the hands of his Maker. Wrapped 
in the blessedness and immensity of His own nature, the Eternal 
Jehovah stands in no need of any services from us, and our 
constant dependence upon His benevolence and bounty for all 
the blessings which we enjoy renders our holiest obedience noth- 
ing more than a suitable expression of gratitude. We only give 
Him of His own. The purest angels that surround His throne 
strictly and properly speaking deserve nothing at His hands ; their 
joy and blessedness are nothing but the results of unrestrained 
loving-kindness on His part. To suppose that a man can merit 
any of the blessings of God is just to suppose that the obedience 
of men is a full equivalent for the favor of his Creator — that it 
constitutes a value received, an actual benefit, which God is under 
a moral obligation to acknowledge. If grace, then, is only that 
which is opposed to merit, such a thing as salvation by grace 
in distinction from any other scheme is utterly impossible. The 
necessary relations subsisting between the creature and the Cre- 
ator preclude forever, even from the holiest, the most remote 
approximations to merit. Hence every scheme of justification 
would stand upon the same footing upon the score of grace, and 
one could no more be said to be of grace than another. If, Adam 
had kept his first estate, and secured the fulfillment of the promise 
to him and his posterity, he would have been just as far from 
meriting eternal life as the sinner redeemed by Christ, and, con- 
sequently, according to this absurd conception of the matter, 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 421 

would have been just as much saved by grace. We are not, then, 
to look into the antithesis of merit for just conceptions of grace. 
The Scriptures nowhere speak of the merit of the creature. This 
idea, unknown to the holy and the good, is to be found only 
in the hearts of the ruined and the lost. Its only lodgment is 
in that cage of unclean birds, the unsanctified heart of man. 
Strange that the wretch who is so far from God, who is dead 
in trespasses and sins, should enhance his guilt by inflated con- 
ceptions of his worth!" . . . (Collected Writings, Vol. 2, 
page 391). Holiness is the most precious and priceless thing in 
the annals of time or in the records of eternity ; it is worth more 
than all the gold of Egypt, than all of the gold of the world, 
than all suns, moons, stars and planets; it is the essence of God's 
own moral character and that which is appraised at an infinite 
maximum. If, therefore, a creature could by a course of con- 
duct, condensed or long-drawn, made up of a few or of a multi- 
tude of "good works," build up a character of holiness, he would 
lay before the Almighty that which had intrinsic merit and stand 
in his presence, not as a suppliant, but as a demandant. Such 
an issue is preposterous in the extreme, and exhibits the fact 
that a holy and a sanctified character cannot be developed ex 
labore, but must be given ex gratia. 

God's desire, then, is for a Christian conduct which shall be 
at once spontaneous and inerrant — a life of obedience which is 
intelligent, holy and satisfactory to all his perfections ; and for 
workmen who need no overseers, and inspectors who need no 
orders and no stimulations and no disciplines, whose "works" 
are without flaw and superior to criticism, whom he need never 
scold nor reproach, who "work" with joy and achieve without 
blemish — workmen who are a delight to his eye and a per- 
fect satisfaction to his heart. This is the goal of gracious ad- 
ministrations. Such workmen must be (1) clothed with the 
right to labor in God's kingdom and (2) imbued with the spirit 
of his service. Neither is obtainable ex labore — by working no 
man can create the right to "work" and by working no man can 
create the heart to "work." Both the right and the heart are 
created ex gratia — by "grace" a man is given the title of a ser- 



422 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

vant of God, and by "grace" man is given the spirit and dispo- 
sition of a servant of God. Whatever position, therefore, which 
may be assigned to "good works," they are excluded from both 
justification and sanctification. They are available neither for 
the one nor for the other. Sinners are not justified by "works," 
neither are they sanctified by "works." In soteriology "grace" 
is the only active principle. In all the applications of the Gospel 
to sinful men from regeneration to heavenly glorification God 
is agent and man is patient. It is a system neither of human 
monergism nor of divine-human synergism. 

I am logically obliged to combat the popular error which pre- 
scribes a system of spiritual gymnastics as a ritual for sanctifi- 
cation — that magnifies the reflex influence of the exercise of the 
virtues of religion into transformations of subjective character — 
that recommends to the world to make itself better by doing 
better. The end proposed can never be achieved in this manner. 
The exercise of godliness is right and proper, but it is at once 
grossly misleading and humiliating to give a utilitarian basis to 
the entire precept of gracious religion. Sinners ought to obey 
God, but not for the sake of the dowry of a good character sup- 
posed to result therefrom. The center — the heart — can never be 
reached from the circumference — the conduct. The inside of the 
platter cannot be cleansed by washing the outside of the vessel. 
The dead in the sepulchre can never be quickened by white- 
washing the outside of the tomb. The whole process is wrong. 
God works from the center towards the circumference, from the 
inside to the outside of life. Hence a ritual of "good works" as 
a prescription for a sanctified life is preposterous. 

That, too, is an error which grounds justification in the 
federal righteousness of Christ and sanctification in the personal 
righteousness of the believer. This is using the "work" of Christ 
to account for man's title to be a servant of God, but the be- 
liever's "work" to account for the origin of his fitness to be the 
servant of God. His right to serve God rises out of the imputa- 
tion of the righteousness of Christ, and his fitness to serve his 
Master springs out of the infusion of that righteousness. That 
is, the disciple is Christianized both externally and internally — 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 423 

both legally and morally. Christ does something for him — places 
in his hand the warrant to "work" in God's vineyard. He also 
does something in him — puts into his heart the spirit to "work" 
in God's vineyard. It is incorrect, therefore, to represent justi- 
fication as a federal benefit and sanctification as a personal bless- 
ing. Both are from Christ ; both are ex gratia. 

It is also a grievous error to represent the means of grace — 
such as the Word, the Sacraments and Prayer — as sanctifying 
ex opere operato. Fire burns ex opere operato; water quenches 
thirst ex opere operato; the magnet attracts the iron filings ex 
opere operato. But plowing corn does not make it grow ex opere 
operato; the carpenter's tools do not cut wood ex opere operato; 
leading a horse to the trough does not make him drink ex opere 
operato. We must distinguish between the efficient and the in- 
strumental cause — the causa qua and the causa sine qua non. 
Second causes do their "work" by virtue of the power which is 
inherent in them — that is, ex opere operato; but they are not ii> 
dependent of conditions and opportunities. The cultivation of 
the corn is a means by which the forces of nature cause it to 
grow; casting fuel on the fire is an instrumentality by which 
the caloric consumes. The wheels, the bands, and the pulleys are 
the machinery upon which the power of water depends for grind- 
ing the corn in the mill. By using the Word of God, the Sacra- 
ments of the Church and Prayer we subject our souls to that 
discipline which the Spirit of God may use as an occasion to 
improve our piety — but they are means, while he is the exclusive 
cause of all advancement in goodness. "Works," therefore, may 
become the occasion of "grace," but they cannot supplant it. In 
doing good the Spirit of God may make the soul better, but it is 
not the doing of good which makes the soul good. The Fourth 
of July may be the occasion for patriotic demonstrations by the 
American citizens, but that day is not the cause of patriotism 
in the heart. Its utter obliteration from the history and the 
life of the American people, so that it would have no distinctive 
meaning to them, would be obliteration of all those patriotic 
phenomena which mark that period of jubilation. So, the ob- 
literation of the Bible, the Sacraments and Prayer, would be the 



424 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

removal of those occasions which the Spirit employs to quicken 
religious virtue in the soul, and would be a tragedy in Christian 
life. But it is not man working with these tools — the Word, 
the Sacraments and Prayer — which makes him a good man ; on* 
the contrary, it is the Spirit of God who uses them to benefit 
believers. They are to be described, therefore, not as means of 
"work" but as means of "grace" It turns out, finally, that there 
is in the scheme of "grace' not so much as any means or tools of 
"work." 

So far as justifying yourself before God, and showing that 
you ought not to have been discharged from his service, or in 
showing that, being discharged, you ought to be reinstated in 
his employment, your mouth is stopped and you are a deaf and 
dumb and blind paralytic ; and, if you labored at the problem 
with the persistence of the fabled Sisyphus, trying to roll the 
stone up the hill, your toil would meet with the same tragic 
failure, for God holds out no promise to justify any sinner 
ex labore. And so far as sanctifying yourself is concerned, en- 
deavoring to make your character fit for the service of God so 
that you would be a workman in whom his work could rest with 
complacential delight, if you piled good deed on top of good 
deed, as the ancients piled Pelion on Ossa, you could never, by 
the very weight and multitude of your "good works" press the 
unfitness out of your heart and press fitness into it, for God 
holds out no engagement to sanctify ex labore. 

Third : "Good Works" graduate the Judgments of God. 

My conclusions, down to this point in the reasoning is that 
sinners are justified and sanctified ex gratia in order that they 
may perform "good works." Faultless Christian conduct is the 
end, the goal, of all God's gracious operations upon the relations 
and upon the hearts of men. Justification and sanctification are 
preparatory to obedience — the one conveying to the sinner the 
legal right to obey and the other conveying to him the spirit 
and the temper of obedience. Hence "grace" is in order to 
"works." "Grace" is means; "works" the end. "Grace" is 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 425 

cause; "works" are effect. This is precisely the conclusion of 
James: "A man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works; 
show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my 
faith by my works." . . . (James 2:18). It is also the con- 
clusion of Paul when he contracts "the works of the flesh with 
"the fruits of the Spirit" . .. . (Gal. 5:19-22). It is also 
the doctrine of our Saviour when he says, "Every branch in me 
that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that 
beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." 
. (John 15:2). "Grace" precedes "works" as the "vine" 
precedes the "branch." "Grace" causes the "works" as the vine 
causes the grapes. The purpose of "grace" is to give the tree 
the right to bear good fruit and the power to bear good fruit. 
"Grace" restores the dismissed servant to the employment of 
the divine Master, and creates within him a heart fully con- 
genial with his employment. The religion of "grace" is in order 
to a religion of "works." It is ex gratia that it may become 
ex labore. In heaven, "his servants shall serve him" — this is the 
Apocalyptic vision of the consummation of the scheme of "grace." 

"Works," then, are the ground of final judgment. This is 
their precise, their exact function. They condition the judgments 
which God will pass upon men at the last day. It is easy to 
support this proposition from the Scriptures. "Wherefore we 
labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of 
him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; 
that every one may receive the things done in his body, accord- 
ing to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 
(2 Cor. 5:9, 10). Paul here says "we labor that we may be 
accepted" ; and that we shall be "judged according to that which 
we have done." Judgment, unlike justification and sanctifica- 
tion, is not ex gratia, but ex labore. "God ; who will render to 
every man according to his deeds ; to them who by patient con- 
tinuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, 
eternal life ; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey 
the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribu- 
lation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil." 
(Romans 2:6-9). The generic principle is, "To every 



426 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

man according to his deeds"; specifically, "To those who seek, 
eternal life ; but to those who "obey not, indignation and wrath." 
There can be no debate here as to the position "works" will oc- 
cupy in the final distribution of the awards of destiny. — "Be not 
deceived ; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap." . . . (Gal. 6:6). The "harvest," if we 
can accept this great announcement, will not be ex gratia, but 
ex labore. "With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not 
to man, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the 
same shall he receive of the Lord ,whether he be bond or free." 
(Eph. 6:7, 8). Here again our doctrine is unequivo- 
cal — "whatsoever good thing any man doeth" shall be fairly ac- 
knowledged by the Lord. "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as 
to the Lord, and not unto men : Knowing that of the Lord ye 
shall receive the reward of the inheritance ; for ye serve the Lord 
Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong 
that he hath done ; and there is no respect of persons." . 
(Col. 3:23-25). Here is an abounding exhortation to "do," and 
"the reward of the inheritance" is made to hang on the character 
of the deeds ; "and there is no respect of persons." The final re- 
ward and the final condemnation are not therefore ex gratia, but 
ex labore. "Behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with me, 
to give every man according as his work shall be." 
(Rev. 22:21). This verse is in the last chapter of God's com- 
munication to men. It tells the earth that the Second Advent of 
Christ is impending; and that when the momentous event, now 
swelling in the bosom of eternity, breaks into historic fact, the 
Saviour will distribute to "every man according as his work 
shall be." There remains to be added to complete the induction 
the scenic passage which our Lord himself drew of the last judg- 
ment in which he adopted "works" as the principle of division, 
and with it separated the nations of the earth into "sheep" and 
"goats," the former on his "right hand" and the latter on his 
"left hand," and according to their deeds admitted the; "sheep" 
into "life eternal,' and dismissed the "goats" into "everlasting 
punishment." This completes the biblical proof of the doctrine 
that the final judgment is according to human "works." God's 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 427 

wrath and God's favor are measured to men according to the 
moral quality of their deeds. He judges them not ex gratia, but 
ex labore — not according to his love, but according to their labors. 
They will be judged out of "the books" which contain the story 
of their earthly lives, and according to the contents of those 
volumes — the heathen according to his biography, and the Chris- 
tian according to his biography, and the infant according to his 
biography; there is "no respect of persons," and there is no 
fact, however insignificant or however important, which will be 
overslaughed ; and there will be no overestimating and no under- 
estimating of a solitary item in the history of any human being. 
Omniscience will parole the facts, and Justice will hold the scales, 
and Grace will not so much as be present in the Court-room, and 
Mercy will retire into the bosom of God without a plea on her 
lips or a tear in her eye. Grace and Mercy will have finished 
their career with men and will not so much as appear upon the 
scene. Omniscience and Justice will rule that hour — the one to 
obtain the facts and the other to mete out the deserts. 

The rule of this judgment will be the law — the Moral Law — 
and not the Gospel. The question as to whether those at the 
bar have accepted or rejected Christ will not so much as be raised. 
The solitary fact to be determined will be whether those who have 
been arraigned are or are not in conformity with the law of 
God, and the further question as to the extent of their agree- 
ment with it or departure from it. Omniscience will detect 
the facts and Justice will render judgment with absolute equity, 
neither in excess nor in diminution of the moral deserts of each 
individual. All will be done with such absolute exactitude that 
every mouth will be stopped and every tongue be dumb, and the 
righteousness of God be universally confessed. The Gospel will 
not supplant the Law, in that judicial proceeding, else would 
those who never had the Gospel have reason to complain; but 
each will be dealt with according to the facts in his own biogra- 
phy — those who had the Law written on their consciences as 
men who had not the written Law, and those who had the written 
Law in addition to conscience, as men who had the written Law, 
and those who had not the Gospel as men who had not the Gospel, 



428 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

and those who had the Gospel as men who had the Gospel, and 
those who were infants as infants, and those who were idiots as 
idiots, and those who were responsible as those who were re- 
sponsible, and those who sinned much as those who sinned much, 
and those who sinned little as those who sinned little, and those 
who did few good works as those who did few good works, and 
those whose days abounded in good deeds as those who abounded 
in good deeds, and those who were murderers as murderers, and 
those who were thieves as thieves, and those who were adulterers 
as adulterers, and those who were penitents as penitents, and 
those who were believers as believers, and those who were the 
children of God as the children of God, and those who were the 
children of the Devil as the children of the Devil — every man 
without discrimination and without partiality according to his 
"works," according to the facts which are contained in his life- 
record. Who can complain? The righteousness of God will be 
universally confessed. Many will bewail their record and wish 
that the mountains and the rocks might fall on them; but they 
will enter no protest against the equity of their judgment. Many 
will rejoice that their record is as it is, and will break the silence 
of heaven with congratulatory hallelujahs. The Gospel is not 
the rule of judgment; it is remedial in its nature; it prepares 
those who accept it to meet with joy and triumph the challenges 
of the Law. It repeals no statute; it modifies no precept; it 
sets aside no command ; it relieves from no duty ; it mitigates 
no demands ; it makes nothing easier. Its sphere is not the Law, 
but facts. It alters the contents of the human biography of those 
who accept it, but it makes no change in the rule under which 
man will be tried. All will be tried upon the same footing under 
that Law which is summarily comprehended in the Ten Com- 
mandments ; but ere that day dawns, Grace and Mercy will have 
imported the facts of justification and sanctification into the 
lives of the elect ; and may consequently retire from the judicial 
scene knowing it shall be well with all those who were "chosen in 
Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world," and who were 
in time and ex gratia justified and sanctified. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 429 

If sinners are justified by "grace" without "works," how can 
they be judged by "works" without "grace?" This is the problem. 
Both facts are taught beyond question in the Scriptures — the fact 
that sinners are justified by "grace" and the fact that they are 
judged by "works." The Bible seems to persistently discredit, 
deny, and denounce those very "works" which will become the 
very basis upon which God will at last make the awards of destiny. 
Here they are worth nothing ; there they are worth everything. 
How can man be saved under a scheme of "grace" and be finally 
judged under a scheme of "works?" How can Christian life 
be made up ex gratia, and then be pronounced upon as ex labore. 

1. This perplexing problem is by some pronounced insoluble 
and relegated to the same category as that concerning divine 
sovereignty and human free agency. We are quietly told that 
we must be justified and sanctified by "grace" in order to meet 
with divine acceptance ; and then we are told in the same breath 
that we must "work" the works of God to be acquitted in the 
day of Judgment; and when we ask, why the two contradictory 
precepts? we are told that no man can answer; and exhorted to 
wait in patience until the day of judgment and the future reve- 
lation of God. There is a "needs be" for both "grace" and 
"works" — but the relation between the two is thought to be in- 
definable. Such an answer may satisfy piety, but it does not 
satisfy intelligence. 

2. The favorite mode of solving our problem adopted by 
Anti-Augustinian theologians is to distribute salvation as a whole 
between "grace" and "works," and represent some factors as the 
contribution of "grace," and some other factors to be the con- 
tribution of "works ;" so that the final result is the joint product 
of "grace" and "works." If this were a correct exposition of 
the matter, then sinners would be saved neither by "grace" nor 
by "works," but by both. This evades the difficulty without 
answering it. The Scriptures categorically teach us that we are 
saved by grace without works, and just as categorically teach us 
that we are judged by works without grace. Neither expression 
can be explained by constituting some sort of partnership between 
"grace" and "works" and conceiving of them as the concauses 



430 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

of the effect. According to Romanism "Grace" is effective up 
to baptism ; at which point "works" take up the story of personal 
salvation and carry it on to the day of Jesus Christ. According 
to Arminians, "grace" deals with original sin and its consequences, 
carrying them away from penitent believers, at which point 
"works" called "evangelical" take up the issue and complete it 
fully and finally. So that there is a kind of partitioning and pro- 
rating of redemptive facts and experiences between "grace" on 
the one hand and "works" on the other. The results, then, can- 
not be fairly said to be of either, but must be credited to both in 
common. Then the judgment ought to be according to "grace 
and works," whereas it is always said to be according to "works" 
only. One of the partners in the achievement ought not to be 
eliminated from the judgment. 

3. It is quite popular at the present time with certain theo- 
logical expositors to draw a distinction between a "legal judg- 
ment" and a "gracious judgment." This distinction is yielded and 
made logically necessary by the fundamental conception of God 
as love. A "legal judgment" is one in which God as a Judge 
pronounces upon the conduct of men in the light of the Moral 
Law according to a strict and an exact Justice. A "gracious 
judgment" is one in which God as a Father pronounces upon the 
conduct of men according to the Gospel in accordance with a 
true and tender paternal Love. In the one Justice is on the 
bench ; in the other Love is the presiding genius. In the one the 
Moral Law is the statute under which the cause is tried; in the 
other the Gospel is the precept which must be applied to the entire 
issue. One is the verdict of a Court of Law ; the other is a ver- 
dict of a Court of Love. One is the process of Judaism; the 
other is a process of Christianity. "Grace" brings suit in the 
Court of Love ; "works" bring suit in the Court of Law ; "grace" 
wins; "works" lose. The purpose of the Gospel was to. super- 
sede the Law — to change venue — to take the sinner's case out 
of the Court of Law and issue it in the Court of Love. Hence 
the conclusion — Salvation is ex gratia in order that judgment may 
not be ex labore. 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 431 

This distinction, made by Baur, Pfleiderer, Reuss, Weiss and 
others, is well set forth by Stevens in these words : "There can 
be no reasonable doubt that the Apostle has retained, in regard 
to the judgment, Jewish phraseology which belongs to the scheme 
of debt and works that he so energetically rejected and opposed ; 
in other words, he did not extend the application of the termin- 
ology of his doctrine of grace and faith to that subject. The 
principles of his system obviously require a distinction to be 
made between the basis of judgment for such as refuse God's 
grace and insist upon standing upon a plane of law and works, 
and for those who renounce all claims to merit and accept the 
gracious salvation through faith. The principles of equivalence 
can apply only to the former class, because they adhere to the 
sphere of law, and make their claim upon the wo rk-and- wages 
principle. But Paul teaches that on this basis there can be no 
acceptance with God, because no one can furnish proof of the 
requisite obedience to the divine requirements. Salvation is ob- 
tainable only on the principle of a gracious concession on God's 
part toward sinful men. This is the ground of their acceptance 
in justification, and must equally be the basis of their final ac- 
ceptance in the judgment." . . . (Pauline Theology, page 
362). 

But the Scriptures do not divide the human race into two 
classes — and then judge one class according to "grace," and the 
other class according to "works." All classes, without any dis- 
tinction whatsoever, are judged according to their "works," and 
no human being of any class is said to be judged by "grace." If 
this be the basis of divine judgment, then how shall those heathen, 
who never had; so much as a chance to accept the scheme of 
"grace" be judged? Not by "grace" because they have never 
heard of "grace;" not by "works," because their "works" being 
bad would damn them all — a consequence these expositors are 
zealous not to allow to overtake the heathen world. Then there 
would be no possible vindication of the justice and fairness of 
that proceeding in Court which makes "concessions" to some 
sinful men which are not made to other sinful men ; there would 
be no semblance of equity in trying one sinner by love and an- 



43 2 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

other sinner by law, for the sinner that would be damnable by 
law would be salvable by love, and the sinner that was salvable 
by love would be damnable by law ; that is, "grace" would ac- 
quit in the day of judgment and "works" would damn in the 
day of judgment. Such is not the problem; the question is, how 
is it that "grace" without "works" justifies, while "works with- 
out grace" acquits? The fact is not as stated, namely — that 
"grace" acquits one "class" in judgment, while "works" condemn 
another "class" in judgment — but, on the contrary, the fact is 
that "grace" does not appear at all in the judgment, and nothing 
enters into the reckoning but "works" only. There is no such 
concept in the Scriptures as a "gracious judgment," and, if there 
were, it would be utterly inexplicable how such an adjective and 
such a noun could be yoked together. What would be thought 
of the human court which would pronounce "gracious judgments" 
upon one class of criminals, as a result laying in their hands most 
priceless privileges, and then pronounce "legal judgment" upon 
another class of criminals, and as a result incarcerating them in 
the penitentiary for life? The so-called "gracious judgment" 
would be absolutely and atrociously illegal and immoral. Our 
Calvinism never went into court to ask for judgment for our 
client by concessions and favor and for judgment against the 
remainder of the world by fact and law! 

According to this party salvation is ex gratia in order that 
judgment may not be ex labore. "It follows that all judgment is 
Christian judgment. Paul does, it is true, give an exposition of 
judgment upon a basis of nature showing that God will according 
to his works judge every man (Romans 2:1-16), but this is 
for the purpose of proving that God has placed all men upon a 
new basis of grace on the ground of Christ's atonement, and 
that the benefits of the Saviour's redemptive work are freely 
offered to all who will accept them. He makes the results of 
Christ's work co-extensive with the evils of the fall (Romans 
5 :i2-2i). We have, therefore, reason to believe that no man will 
be judged upon a basis of pure nature, but that all will receive 
the benefit of Christ's work. This is the ground of our hope 
in the salvation of those heathen who have not rejected the light 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 433 

God has given them. They will be judged according to Christ, 
and their potential and imperfect faith will for his sake be 
counted to them for righteousness. And as this principle of 
Christian judgment will inure to the benefit of all those who 
have known Christ in this world, so it will enhance the condem- 
nation of those, who having known of Christ, have rejected him." 
(Present Day Theology, by Stearns, page 527). 

Here, again, is the distinction between a natural and a Chris- 
tian judgment. The basis of the natural judgment is said to be 
"works" ; of the Christian judgment "grace." All men are rep- 
resented as having been removed from under natural judgment 
by Christ, and given a common standing under Christian judg- 
ment. 

4. The Calvinistic proposition is that we are saved by "grace" 
in order that we may be judged by "works." The purpose of a 
scheme of "grace" is not to supplant the scheme of "works," as 
one party incorrectly teaches ; nor is it the purpose of a scheme 
of "grace" to supplement a scheme of "works," as another party 
vainly teaches ; nor is it the purpose of a scheme of "grace" to 
make possible a scheme of "works," as others falsely teach ; but 
it is the purpose of a scheme of "grace" to translate into fact 
the scheme of "works." Sinners are justified and sanctified ex 
gratia in order that they may be judged ex lab ore. "Grace" pre- 
pares the Christian to stand a judgment based upon "works" — it is 
his propaedeutic for that great and notable day which marks 
final assignment to heaven or hell. 

All God's judgments, whether commendatory or condemna- 
tory, will be based upon the conduct, the deeds, the behaviour, 
the life, the "works," of men ; the inventory will be made by 
Omniscence, and will, consequently, be absolutely and infallibly 
complete; Justice will weigh all with inerrant accuracy, and 
apportion reward and punishment with absolute exactitude and 
perfect equality. 

That all sins are not equal in their turpitude and guilt is at 
once a doctrine of common sense and of Scripture. To say that 
there is as much malignity in a foolish jest as there is in a vile 
slander, that an angry word is as heinous as a cold blooded 



434 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

murder, that the theft of a farthing is equal in quality to the 
theft of chastity, is to contradict and outrage the moral senti- 
ments of mankind. All sins are equally sin, but all sins are not 
equal sins. The adverb predicates quality — the adjective degree. 
All poisons are equally poison, but all poisons are not equal 
poisons — prussic acid is more deadly than nicotine. 

That we may truly use the adjectives greater and less in 
connection with guilt, the Scriptures clearly warrant. Bethsaida 
and Capernaum had accumulated a greater guilt than Sodom and 
Gomorrah. "That servant which knew his Lord's will and pre- 
pared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be 
beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did com- 
mit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. 
For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much re- 
quired ; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will 
ask the more.". . (Luke 12:47, 48). "He that despised Moses' law, 
died without mercy under two or three witnesses ; of how much 
sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, 
who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the 
blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy 
thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?".... 
(Hebrew 10:28, 29). "All transgressions of the law of God 
are not equally heinous, but some sins in themselves, and by 
reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of 
God than others.". . . . (Larger Catechism). 

As evil "works" differ in the degree of their reprehensible- 
ness, so "good works" differ in the degree of their virtue. To 
say that it is as virtuous to save a drowning dog as to save a 
drowning patriot, or that it is as commendable to feed a starving 
criminal as to feed a starving saint, or that it is as praiseworthy 
for the same man to build a cabin as to build a hospital — to say 
that all deeds are of the same rank in their benevolent quality is 
to shock and outrage the common conscience of the race and to 
obliterate distinctions which men know to exist. Nothing can 
be gained by so leveling an extravagance. The widow who cast 
her "mite" into the treasury cast in "more" than all. The Word 
of God exhorts Christians to "abound" in "good works." The 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 435 

thief who died on the cross cannot be compared in respect to 
good deeds to the Apostle Paul, whose labors were abundant in 
the cause of Christ. 

Now, the divine judgments are according to human "works." 
This is but saying that God sees truly and feels accurately and 
judges faithfully. Every "work" which is generically evil meets 
with his disapprobation, and the intensity of that disapprobation 
is measured by the enormity of the evil which has been done — 
he beats with many stripes or with few stripes according to the 
grade of the wrong which has been done; and every "work" 
which is generically good meets with his approbation ; the in- 
tensity of that approbation is measured by the degree of the 
goodness of the deed. There are degrees in hell, and there are 
degrees in heaven. He who is evil at all is hell-deserving, but he 
who is intensively bad will receive a deeper damnation ; and he 
who is good at all is worthy of heaven, but he who is intensively 
good is worthy of the highest heaven. This is but saying that 
God deals with men according to the facts which make their 
history. 

Note the twin parables of the Talents and the Pounds (Matt. 
25 : 1 4-30 and Luke 19 112-27) . In the former the Lord "gave unto 
one five talents, to another two, and to another one ; to every man 
according to his several ability." The five-talent man doubled his 
Lord's money, and so did the two-talent man, and they each 
received the same reward for their service. In the parable of the 
Pounds the nobleman "called his ten servants, and delivered them 
ten pounds" — a pound each. One servant increased his money 
tenfold, and was rewarded with ten cities ; and another increased 
his gift fivefold, and was rewarded with five cities. The one- 
talent man had made no use of his Lord's money, and was se- 
verely punished. And one servant, who had received his pound, 
but made no use of it was severely punished also. In the parable 
of the Talents there was, (1) inequality of ability, (2) inequality 
of gift, (3) equality of increase and (4) equality of reward; 
while in the parable of the Pounds there was, (1) equality of 
ability, (2) equality of gift, (3) inequality of increase and (4) 
inequality of reward. The useless, doless servant in both cases 



436 Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 

was cast out. These parables justify the doctrine that God recog- 
nizes the difference in the capacity and equipment of his servants 
and blesses them in proportin to their fidelity in his service ; while 
those who are utterly unfaithful will be dismissed under his 
frown out of his presence. Ability and endowment are ex gratia, 
and are not taken into count in the judgment ; but fidelity is ex 
labore, and becomes the very ground of judgment, elevating the 
most faithful servant to the highest favour, the next in fidelity to 
the second position, and casting the unfaithful steward into dark- 
nes and despair. We are all quite familiar with the barren fig 
tree which was cursed because it bore no fruit. 

The argument, then, has conducted us to this double con- 
clusion, (1) "good works" are essential to entry into heaven and 
(2) they determine the grade of glory which will be bestowed by 
the Master upon any of his servants — both the fact and the 
amount of the reward are conditioned upon the labors of God's 
workmen. Judgment will be rendered according to the deeds 
done in the body. The "branch" which bears no fruit at all will 
be burned ; the fig tree which bears nothing but leaves will be 
cursed and will wither away ; the servant who wraps his pound 
in the napkin, or buries his talent in the ground, was despoiled 
of what he had and cast into outer darkness as an "unprofitable 
servant." Judgment will be passed upon men according to their 
"works" — conduct will be at a premium on that great and notable 
"day of God Almighty and the Lamb." Jehovah's aim is to have 
in the consummation of all things "servants who shall serve him." 

How shall sinners meet such a demand? By their sins they 
have lost the legal right to serve God, and been dismissed from 
his employment under his scowl and curse. To re-enter his ser- 
vice they must first be authorized, for no laborer can enter an- 
other's vineyard except he be first "hired." Justification is that 
act of "grace" which reinstates the sinner, as a servant, in the 
favor of God, as Lord and Master — putting into his hand the 
indefeasible title to "work" for God. But it is not enough to 
have the right of a servant, one must also have the heart of a 
servant — that spirit which renders his duties congenial and spon- 
taneous — that love which transfigures employment into pleasure 
and duty into delight — that contentment and satisfaction into 



Christian Salvation — Its Doctrine and Experience 437 

doxology and worship. Sanctification does this — conveys a heart 
to the servant which makes his duties congenial, delightful, in- 
spiring, the very climax of his happiness. As long as sanctifica- 
tion is imperfect, so long will the service of God and the duties 
of religion be more or less irksome, creating more or less of irri- 
tation of heart, because the servant has not been brought into 
perfect sympathy with his employment. But when grace shall 
have finished purging the spirit of the laborer, and shall have 
planted in his bosom a heart of perfect holiness, his life will be 
one endless hymn of praise rising out of the absolute harmony 
between his soul and his employments. His meat and his drink 
will be to do the will of God ; no more divided heart — no more 
divided desire. The work of his hands and the love of his heart 
will have met and kissed in the unity of perfect happiness. God 
will at last have a human servant in whom his soul delights — a 
servant who works as he sings and sings as he works — whose 
loved employ, whose exuberant joy, is to do the will of God. 
In "the new heavens and in the new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness," every redeemed servant will cry, with the exuber- 
ance of the chief servant of all, "Lo, I come ; in the volume of 
the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God." 

Justification gives to the sinner the right to serve God; 
sanctification imparts to sinners the heart to serve God ; and 
judgment is according to the service rendered. It is ex gratia 
in order that it may be ex labore. Sinners are redeemed for ser- 
vice — redeemed that they may obey God with spontaneity and 
happiness. 

Will a sinner's deeds save him? No; he must be saved in 
order to do. Will his "works" justify him? No; he must be 
justified in order to have the right and the privilege to work. 
Will his labors sanctify him ? No ; he must be sanctified in order 
to have the heart to labor. Will his deeds be mentioned in the 
day of judgment? Yes; every one of them will figure in the 
reckoning which God will make with his soul. Are "good works" 
necessary to salvation ? Yes ; by his fruits the sinner will be 
known and judged at the last day. He who has done little will 
receive little ; and he who has done much will receive much ; and 
he who has done nothing will be cast into outer darkness. 



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